The Tales of Bella Lumic
by Striders-Girl89
Summary: When the Doctor is given a tip-off from Captain Jack at Torchwood about alien activity in a small town south of Bath, the Doctor has no idea that he was about to find the girl who would become his next companion. Set a few months after series four finale.
1. The Day the Earth was Stolen CH1

The Day the Earth was Stolen CH1

Bella Lumic yawned and stretched underneath her warm blankets. She opened her eyes and blinked in the soft sunlight that shone through her curtains. Sighing, she rolled onto her left side and looked at her clock that sat beside her lamp on the bedside table. She stared at the clock face for a few moments before the time actually registered in her brain; 08:10am.

"Ahh!" she gasped as she sat bolt upright and glancing down to her wrist watch to double check that the time was right before throwing off her blankets, jumping off her bed and running to her large wardrobe; she'd have to skip the shower this morning, she thought as she quickly undressed. She pulled out a clean pair of jeans, a plain t-shirt and underwear and put them on so fast that even a ninja would be envious.

She quickly put her black Converse All Stars as she hopped out of her room and into the hallway before crashing into the opposite wall. Groaning, she moved quickly into the bathroom where she brushed her teeth, washed her face and pulled her strawberry-blonde hair into a loose bun. She gave herself one last look in the mirror, shrugged, and then ran back into her room, glancing again at her watch: 08:15 am. She grabbed her black overcoat and red tartan scarf from the chair in the corner of her room and threw them on before grabbing her car keys and her black Batman bag off her desk.

She ran down stairs and turned left into the kitchen, where she found Mary (who was her guardian after her father had died) reading the newspaper at the kitchen bench.

"That's yesterday's paper," Bella said, walking past her to the fridge.

Mary's small, unintelligent eyes looked to Bella, who was now raiding the fridge. "Why haven't you brought today's in?"

"Over slept," she answered, grabbing an apple and shutting the fridge door. "I'm taking my car," she added, making a point to say that the car was hers.

Mary frowned at her. "I was going to take Mark into Bath today."

Bella's jaw tightened slightly. "Seeing as _I'm_ the one who puts petrol in the car…" she mumbled angrily to herself.

"What?" said Mary sharply.

"Look, I'm sorry, but I really need to get to work," Bella said, heading for the door that led outside. "How about I drive you both up to Bath on Tuesday?" she proposed before taking a bite of her apple and walking out the door, not waiting for Mary to give an answer.

As she walked down the steps she shivered slightly. There was a slight breeze making it a cool morning for October and she hurried into the garage to start her red Vauxhall Vectra before opening the garage door. 08:25am; she was supposed to be at the bookshop by eight-thirty to be ready to open at nine. She'd be lucky to get there before open, she thought to herself as she jumped in the driver's seat and reverse quickly out of the garage.

She reached Tunley and entered the back of the shop with five minutes to open. Her boss would kill her if he'd have known she'd been this late. Throwing her bag, coat and scarf into the backroom, she went to the front of the old shop and unlocked the front door, where she found one of her regulars waiting for her.

"Hello, Mr. Hastings," Bella smiled warmly, opening the front door to let the old, grey-haired man in.

"Good morning Bella," he said happily as he walked in past her, "Beautiful day out."

"Sure is," Bella said, glancing outside and seeing the cloudless Saturday morning. "Just give me a yell if you need anything."

"A cup of tea would be nice," he told her playfully as he walked towards the old war biographies.

Bella laughed as she walked back towards the counter. "Oh, I'd love one thanks!"

She heard the old man chuckle fondly as two more men walked in, both greeting Bella with a smile. She sat herself down behind the cash resister and sighed. Who would have thought that she'd be working full-time in a small bookshop after getting top marks in her A-levels. It could be worse though, she reminded herself. She could have been working in a fast-food chain up in Bath. Still, she couldn't help but feel as though she was wasted here in a small town.

At around nine-thirty, as Bella sorted through several boxes of new arrivals, she could have sworn she felt the ground shake ever so slightly. She frowned and looked around, Mr. Hastings catching her eye.

"Did you feel –"she started but she was cut short.

The Ground gave an almighty shake and everyone in the shop was knocked off their feet and all the shelving and books fell on and around them.

A few moments later Bella stirred and shifted layers of books off her and sat up, looking around her to try and work out what had happened.

The book shop was in disarray. All the old wooden shelving was either leaning against the walls or lying on the floor, all the books and magazines were thrown everywhere and one of the shop windows had been smashed from one of the bookshelves. Everything was a complete mess.

Bella quickly stood up and climbed over the bookshelf closest to her to try and help Mr. Hastings out from under all the books. "Is everyone okay?" she called, helping the old man to his feet.

There were groans for answers from the five other people in the shop; there were the two older men, a teenage girl and a mother and a son.

"What the hell was that?" the young boy exclaimed as he emerged from the books.

"Language, Brock." The mother said reproachfully.

The teenage girl stood up and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because _hell_ is a word you need to be worrying about, Elaine."

"Mr. Winters," Bella asked quickly so that an argument didn't break out. "Mr. Scott, are you okay?"

"Yes lass," Mr. Scott said as he sat up.

"Although," Mr. Winters' added. "I think we've all been knocked out for a while."

"What makes you say that?" Elaine asked.

"Its night time!" said Brock as he pointed out the window.

Brock was right in a sense; it was dark outside and even the automated street lamps had come on, but Bella knew it wasn't night.

"It isn't night time," Bella said quietly. She had checked her watch the moment she had regained consciousness, when she had first noticed how dark it was.

"Of course it is Bella," Mr. Scott laughed. "I think you've hit your head particularly hard!"

"Look at your watches," Bella told them calmly as everyone glanced down to their wrists. "It's only been five minutes since the earthquake; its twenty-to-ten in the morning!"

Everyone gasped as they realised that Bella was right. She wasted no time and climbed over the bookshelf and the mountain of books beside her to reach the front door, which she opened quickly. Despite the warnings from everyone inside the bookshop, she walked outside to find that the breeze from earlier had disappeared, cars crashed into trees, houses and each other, alarms from shops, houses and cars going off and several people walking around, dazed and confused. She looked up to the sky and found herself gasping in surprise.

As she had expected, there was no bright moon in the sky or even the sun. What there was however, was twenty-six very large and very close new planets. Bella's mouth dropped as she took in the sheer magnificence and beauty of the site above her.

Suddenly the air was filled with terrified screams as the people around Bella looked up to see the planets of different colours, shapes and sizes.

"Bella!" someone yelled making Bella look behind her.

"Sally?" said Bella as her pixie-ish looking best friend collided and wrapped her arms around her.

"Did you feel it too?" Sally asked Bella, who managed to escape from her best friend's tight hold.

"Of course she felt it, Sally," said a young man two years older than them as he walked over to them. "I reckon everyone in Britain felt that one!"

"I wasn't talking to you, Dylan." Sally snapped at her older brother. "What do you think caused it?"

Bella stared at the two of them in disbelief before looking up. Sally and Dylan glanced upwards too and Sally gripped onto Bella's arm and gave a shrill, panicked cry while Dylan gasped and took a few steps backward.

"How –"Dylan managed to say. "How did they get here? How did all those planets appear in our solar system?"

"I don't think it is our solar system," Bella said quietly, looking back up at the amazing sight above her while he looked down to her sharply. "If you look past the planets you can see that we're in a new part of space. A new solar system, a new galaxy."

"Try not and look so happy, eh?" he said darkly, making her look to him smiling.

Bella's eyes focused on a bright, white light that appeared on the street behind Dylan, which only she seemed to notice. A young blonde woman suddenly appeared holding what looked like a massive, black water pistol. Bella looked at her in amazement (how many more impossible things could happen today, Bella thought unbelievingly) and took in her appearance.

The woman looked like she was only a few years older than Bella would have been and she was only a foot or so taller. She wore black pants, a pink top and a purple leather jacket and her hair was down. Her hazel eyes met with Bella's for a moment before, in another flash of white light, she disappeared.

Bella blinked a few times in disbelief before she realised Sally and Dylan were having a conversation. "What?" she stammered.

"I said," Sally said stiffly, not liking being ignored on the best of days. "If the sun is gone how are we still alive?"

Bella and Dylan exchanged an unsure glance before the phone in Bella's shop rang. She frowned as she ran back into the destroyed bookshop, climbed over all the books and shelving to reach the desk and picked up the old fashioned phone breathlessly.

"Hello?" she managed to say.

"Bella, oh good you're okay!" said the familiar voice of her boss. "Did you just get that earthquake?"

"Yeah," she said. "Bruce, where are you?"

"I'm over in Cardiff," Bruce said airily. "How did the shop hold up?"

Bella hesitated, frowning. "I honestly think that the shop is the least of your problems right now."

"What do you mean?" he asked and Bella could hear confusion in his voice.

"Take a look outside," she told him.

There was a silence for a few seconds before he responded.

"Oh my God!" he exclaimed before the phone line went all staticy and a new, unfamiliar mechanical voice said "All communications will cease! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

She quickly hung up the phone before she heard the same voice yelling the words exterminate over and over again on the radio beside her. Everyone in the shop looked to her.

"I think," she said slowly, attempting to keep her voice steady. "We should all head home…"

"Its them aliens again, I bet!" Mr Winters whispered darkly. "Martians,"

"Well, Mr. Winters, I'm certainly not going to disagree with you," Bella said before making sure each of her customers got out of the shop safely.

"Bella, what are you doing?" Sally yelled as Bella ran back into the shop, disappearing from hers and Dylan's site.

"Getting my bag, coat and scarf," she yelled back.

Sally rolled her eyes. "It's not even that cold!"

"Spoken by someone who's wearing a warm coat," Bella said, emerging from the bookshop in her knee-length black overcoat and her black tartan scarf. "Where'd you guys park?"

"We didn't," Dylan told her. "Our neighbours dropped us in."

Bella rolled her eyes before there was suddenly more terrified screams further down the road. Bella spun round and saw, in the sky, several flying-saucer looking space ships before three bronze, extra large (they were taller than Bella) salt and pepper shakers appeared out of nowhere.

"What the –" Bella exclaimed before they each yelled "EXTERMINATE!" and shot a dark green laser beam at the building closest to them, blowing the gas supply up. Bella gave an alarmed cry as Dylan pulled her and Sally backwards, a shock wave blowing over them.

"Fancy coming to my house?" asked Bella faintly, Sally and Dylan nodded fiercely.


	2. The Day the Earth was Stolen CH2

The Day the Earth was stolen CH2

Bella opened the door that led from outside into the kitchen and moved inside quickly. "Mary," she called loudly, straining her ears to hear if there was a response. "Mark?"

Nothing…

Frowning, she moved forward to check the lounge room before walking downstairs into the cold, dark cellar. Not finding anything, she came back up and jogged up to the second level. After dumping her stuff in her bedroom, she checked Mary and Mark's room, her parents' unused room and the bathroom, but they were nowhere to be found.

"They aren't here," Bella said, feeling confused and a little concerned.

"Oh well," Sally said as her and her brother came up the stairs and walked into the study.

"Nice computer!" Dylan called.

Bella shook her head. "Priorities," she muttered, walking into her bedroom again to pear out the window down to the stone stables. Her three horses stood in their boxes, their ears moving uneasily. Perhaps it was best to leave them in there, she thought to herself.

She sighed and walked across the hall and into the study and sat down on the two-seater lounge that faced the computer, which Dylan was using.

"Looks like those things – whatever they are – are taking out every military base all over the world." He said quietly, frowning at the computer screen.

"Well, if I was an invading alien that's what I'd do," Bella said flatly as she wondered what they were going to do if no one was defending Earth. "Take out the people who would be the biggest threat –"

"Don't be stupid, Bella." Sally said as she stood looking out the large window at the front of the room. "Aliens are not real."

"How can you say that?" Bella said hotly, standing up. "There are twenty-six planets in the sky, we're in a different part of space and giant salt and pepper shakers came in flying saucers! What more do you want, David Attenborough doing a documentary in 3D?"

"I can never understand why you go so upset about this, Bella." Sally said dismissively.

"Sally –"Dylan started.

"Because I'm looking at the situation logically and scientifically," Bella said stubbornly. "How could we possibly be the _only_ life forms in a universe this big?"

Sally turned to her. "Here we go," she said angrily. "Bella is going to let us in on her hopes and dreams of being a space traveller going to visit planets on the other side of the universe. This isn't a _Star Wars_ film, Bella. There aren't little Yoda's running around in a galaxy far, far away. No one is going to come and rescue you in their Millennium Falcon!"

Bella stared at her best friend, frowning and feeling deeply hurt. "I guess all I can say is that if you want to ignore the facts, then go ahead. You're entitled to your beliefs and I'm entitled to my own."

Sally let out a frustrated sigh. "It's a load of horse – where are you going?"

"To find Mary and Mark," Bella said as she turned to leave the room.

"You can't go outside!" Sally gasped; making a move to follow her but Dylan stood up and shook his head.

"Why not?" she jeered at the doorway, "Nothing is going to get me. There's no such thing as aliens, remember?"

As Bella disappeared and they heard her walking down the staircase, Dylan turned to his angry looking sister. "Nice," he said sarcastically.

"She infuriates me sometimes," Sally said angrily. "Her head is always up in the clouds, dreaming of the impossible."

"Can you blame her, thought?" Dylan asked seriously. "With such a painful past and a rubbish home life, dreaming up the impossible is probably the only way she stays sain."

Sally sighed in defeat and sunk down onto the lounge, thinking that that was a valid point. "I suppose you're right…"

"I'm your older brother," Dylan said matter-of-factly. "I am always right."

Bella walked over to the garden shed, her hands in her jeans pockets feeling anger bubbling away in her stomach. She couldn't believe that Sally _still_ didn't believe in aliens. But it was always like that, and not just with Sally. Everyone would believe for just a moment, then someone in the government or the police would try and cover the whole affair up by saying it was just a clever hoax and that would make people doubt their own judgement. But Bella didn't; there were no such thing as coincidences.

First thing she could remember was the plastic shop dummies coming alive and walking around London and shooting everyone. Next was the spaceship that crashed into Big Ben and then was that other spaceship that controlled everyone with a certain blood type. After that there were those ghosts wandering around all over the world that turned out to actually be massive metal men that started shooting everyone and taking people for 'upgrading'. Then in Christmas 2006 there was what people were calling 'the Christmas Star' that shot everyone. The following Christmas saw a giant, flying Titanic nearly crash into Buckingham Palace then nearly a year later was those cute little fat creatures and the whole ATMOS pandemonium. The last two she wasn't entirely sure that they had anything to do with aliens, but she couldn't see how they weren't.

She sighed as she reached the stone shed and opened the heavy wooden door. It was very dark inside and she couldn't really see much, but she knew that Mary and Mark weren't in there. She stepped inside to take one last look and the familiar feeling rose in her mind that that there was something in there that she was missing, something she couldn't see yet it was still there.

Shaking her head, she stepped backwards and closed the door and made her way over to the stables. The horses all greeted her with uneasy whinnies and she got hay for them to try and settle them before sitting down on the cold concrete in front of them. She leant back on her arms and looked up to the strange sky.

It was only a few minutes before Dylan walked up to her and sat on the ground beside her.

"Mary and Mark not here?" he asked.

"No," she said quietly.

He watched her closely until she spoke again.

"I don't know why I care about them, I just do." She said. "Maybe it's because they're all I have left…"

"Fair enough," he said lightly. "Sally didn't mean what she said before."

Bella looked down. "Yeah she did," she said as she looked to him. "Where are your parents?"

"At home I suppose," he said indifferently. "The phone lines are dead, so I don't know for sure."

Bella nodded, feeling a new wave of worry wash over her.

A short silence followed which was made awkward by the fact that Dylan was staring at her. She looked to him and found that he had moved closer to her.

"What?" she asked feeling slightly startled.

He smiled. "Do you know that you are beautiful?"

Bella's stomach squirmed uncomfortably as she groaned inwardly. "Ah, is this the right time to be trying a move on me?"

"I think it is," he admitted as he grinned.

Bella sighed, hating where this was going. "Dylan, I've told you before –"

She was cut short as he suddenly grabbed her and pulled her to her feet and dragged her over to the side of the stables, practically pinning her to the stone wall. She made to protest loudly but Dylan put his hand over her mouth and she glared furiously up at him. He looked down to her and nodded in the direction of the house. She looked to where he was indicating.

Out by the road were two of the bronze aliens that they had seen in town. They floated in the air, gliding along the street, their heads swivelling from side-to-side as they went.

Dylan's hand dropped from Bella's mouth as they watched the two robot looking aliens until they had gone.

"Well, I don't think that stairs are going to do much to stop them." Bella stated, looking back to Dylan, which made her stomach drop.

They were very close and Dylan suddenly leant even closer.

"Dylan, no –"

But it was too late. He had kissed her. She was momentarily stunned and was able to do nothing, but then her eyes slowly began to close and her hands reached up to his neck. She kissed him back as Dylan pulled her closer and placed a hand on her cheek.

The moment Bella realised that she was actually enjoying kissing him, she pushed him away.

"No, Dylan," she managed to say, keeping her eyes closed for a few moments. "I don't like you… not like this, at least."

"Like how then?" he asked softly as he leant in and kissed her neck. "Because you definitely like kissing me…"

"I like you like a brother," she said, ignoring his last comment.

"That's a bit kinky," he said cheekily as he tried to kiss her again but she was too quick and she managed to weave out of his grip.

"Please don't do this," she said as she looked to him pleadingly, "Especially not now. I've grown up with you and I've always thought of you as my older brother, not a potential boyfriend. I just don't see you in that way…"

He smiled at her and sighed. "Okay," he said eventually. "But you'll realise how madly in love you are with me one day, not to mention my amazing ability to kiss. Oh look, there's a bit of red on your cheeks."

"Shut up," she said as she turned and walked back towards the house, feeling the heat rising in her cheeks.

"I'm going to wait for you," he laughed while he followed her. "You are way too good to let go."

Bella smiled ever-so-slightly as she walked through the back door and into the music room.

"I'm pretty sure it's not going to be a long wait though," Dylan said as he closed the door behind him, making Bella roll her eyes.

"Keep telling yourself that, butthead."

"Ooh!" he exclaimed as they walked into the hallway. "That was flirting! You totally just flirted with me!"

"Who's flirting with who?" said Sally's voice floating from the lounge room.

"No one," Bella said sharply as she entered the lounge room and sat next to Sally on the lounge.

"Bah," Dylan laughed as he sat down on Sally's opposite side.

Bella glared at him before looking to the television which Sally had turned on to see American news presenter Trinity Wells sitting behind her news desk explaining how there hadn't been any explanation as to how the planets appeared in the sky.

Sally changed the channel to a talk show with Richard Dawkins speaking to someone off camera, telling him in a convincing manner that the Earth had moved and that they were now in a new part of space.

"Told you," Bella said to Sally who rolled her eyes.

"This has all been on the telly before." She told them as Dylan snatched the remote off her and started flicking through the channels. "It all must be stuck on repeat. Everyone has lost contact with everyone else…"

Dylan stopped at the Paul O'Grady show with a smile on his face, as if anticipating something amusing. They watched as O'Grady made a joke about furniture polish that made Bella and Dylan laughed before Sally snatched the remote off her brother and turned the television off. "You two are sick!" she snapped and stormed over to the corner, Dylan shrugging and turning the television back on manually.

Around an hour passed and the three of them all sat in the lounge room. Dylan was taking up the lounge, snoring slightly as he slept, Sally sat in the corner in a rocking chair behind the pool table and Bella sat beside the television, her arms around her legs as she listened to the static and watched the spots on the screen.

A man's voice could be heard over the static, but there was no picture. He spoke slowly and sombrely. "This is the Commander General of the United Nations calling the Dalek Fleet. We surrender. I repeat, we surrender, planet Earth surrenders…"

Bella bit her lip as fear gripped her for the first time. What hope was there now when the United Nations had given up?

The static flared on the television and a new voice replaced the Commander General's.

"Humans selected for testing will follow Dalek instructions," said the mechanical voice of the invading alien. "The Daleks reign supreme, all hail the Daleks. You will obey Dalek instructions without question. You will obey your Dalek masters –"

A sudden four beat rhythm suddenly sounded through the television and a new female voice began speaking calmly and Bella looked up to see a faint silhouette behind the static.

"Can anyone here me?" the somewhat familiar voice said. "The subwave network is open; you should be able to hear my voice."

Bella leant on her knees and hit the top of the television to try and clear the signal, trying to work out why she knew that voice.

"Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me?"

"Harriet Jones," Bella gasped quietly when she finally figured out who the voice belonged to. She hit the television a few more times out of frustration.

"This message is of the utmost importance, we haven't much time! Can anyone hear me?"

"I can," Bella whispered, placing her hand on the television screen as if willing Harriett Jones to hear her. All she wanted to do was to help, and if Harriett Jones had a plan, than it would have to be a good one.

The former Prime Minister paused for a few moments before saying "Captain Jack Harkness, shame on you!" Another pause followed. "Now stand to attention sir –"

The static flared again and this time Bella lost Harriett Jones completely. Bella gave a roar of frustration and hit the television so forcefully she was surprised she didn't break it or her hand.

Dylan awoke with a start and Sally stood up.

"Bella, what's wrong?" asked Sally looking at Bella with a worried expression.

"Harriett Jones," Bella said beginning to pace back and forth in front of the television. "She was trying to get through on the TV, she needs help –"

"What?" asked Dylan.

"Harriett Jones needs help!" Bella cried.

"As in ex-Prime Minister Harriett Jones?" said Dylan frowning.

"No, ex-monkey's uncle Harriett Jones," Bella snapped sarcastically. "Of course ex-Prime Minister Harriett Jones, she was just on TV!"

They both looked at her like she was mad.

"Bella, the TV has been shouting static for almost an hour now," Sally said, glancing down to her watch.

But she was just on…" Bella said, looking down to the television screen. "She said something about a really important message on a subwave network…"

"Bella, honey," Dylan said quietly as he stood up. "I think you're imagining things."

Bella stared at him as he put his arm around her. She knew what she had seen and heard and she certainly wasn't making it up.

"Why did you just call her _honey_?" Sally suddenly asked hotly.

Bella and Dylan both looked to her and said "Priorities Sally!"

Sally glared at them both for a few moments before her eyes suddenly widened. "You're _dating_!"

"No," Bella said just as Dylan said "I wish!"

"You _wish_ you could date my best friend?" Sally yelled and Bella groaned, pushing Dylan's arm off her shoulder and making her way to the door. She didn't particularly feel like witnessing an ill-timed domestic. As she reached the door she didn't see the two faces that briefly flashed across the TV screen; a pretty, red-haired woman and an attractive brown-haired man wearing a pinstriped suit.

She walked out the front door, descended the front steps and lay down on the green grass, looking up to the strange, yet beautiful sky. She didn't care if one of the Dalek creatures saw her. She didn't understand why she was the only one who could see and hear Harriett Jones. And what the hell was a subwave network? Who was Captain Jack Harkness? Maybe they had a plan that could get them out of this? She certainly hoped so. In Bella's opinion Jones had been one of the best PM's since Churchill. She felt that it had been a shame that Harald Saxon had been voted in. There had been something not quite right about him; she just hadn't been able to put her finger on it. She was glad she hadn't been old enough to vote because to this day she couldn't remember what it was that he stood for…

She gave a sigh as she heard Sally and Dylan's voices as they yelled at each other ("She's my best friend!" "We can share her!"), so she tried to block them out. Looking at the sky she wondered where in the universe they were and she wondered how they had gotten there. With a smile she realised that she had sort of achieved a life time dream: travelling in space. Although it wasn't exactly how she'd imagined it, she couldn't really complain.

She used to remember when she was younger lying out where she was now, wishing with every fibre in her body that she could travel across the stars to all the distant galaxies, exploring the universe. She couldn't deny that it was still her dream, but she had accepted the fact that space travel would never occur in her lifetime. She supposed it could be possible, but felt that it was highly improbable.

The front door opened and Sally walked out, glancing up at the sky as she made her way to Bella. She sat down beside her and stared upwards.

"It looks pretty frightening," Sally said quietly.

Bella grinned. "But slightly awesome," she answered as she sat up.

Sally smiled at her slightly. "Only you could find it exciting." She said, making Bella laugh softly. "Look, I'm sorry about what I said earlier, Belle, I shouldn't of said what I did."

"You don't need to apologise," Bella said quietly. "I understand. I mean, I know that I'm a little crazy and my hopes are a little unrealistic."

Sally looked at her guiltily. "You always forgive me."

"What are best friends for?" she asked seriously.

"You still shouldn't forgive so easily," Sally said reproachfully.

Bella shrugged. "I just can't help myself."

Sally laughed and put her arm around Bella. "I know," she smiled before she paused and continued awkwardly. "And you know, if you did want to date Dylan it wouldn't be too bad I suppose…"

"Relax," Bella said rolling her eyes. "I don't want to go out with him."

"I mean, I don't want to know _anything_ that you guys get up to," Sally continued as if Bella hadn't spoken. Obviously she had rehearsed what she was going to say before she had come outside. "But if he's the one that's going to make you happy –"she continued before she stopped talking and looked to her best friend. "Did you just say that you _didn't_ want to go out with him?"

Bella nodded, feeling amused. "Yep," she said.

"Oh thank God!" she exclaimed happily. "Cause there was no way I was going to share you with my brother."

Bella laughed loudly and looked absentmindedly up to the sky again while Sally continued to look at her.

"It's going to be someone very special to make you fall for them, I think." Sally said quietly.

Bella glanced too her as Sally leant back to look back to the sky as well. She was going to ask where a comment like that one had come from before Sally changed the subject.

"Do you reckon we'll get out of this one?"

"I don't know," Bella answered quietly as she lay down on her back and stared up at the sky. "I guess all we can do is hope that on one of the other planets someone has the right technology to fight these Dalek creatures. That and that they have the guts to face them I suppose…"

"Do you think someone will do that, though?"

"Yeah," Bella said. "I mean, it's always felt as though someone has been looking out for us in the past, hopefully they'll do it again."

They both fell into a thoughtful silence, Bella wondering if it was wrong to hope for such a thing, to rely completely on one person to save them all. It felt like an hour had passed (at a frighteningly slow pace) before Bella saw the impossible.

She sat bolt upright staring at where a planet had been.

"A planet just disappeared," she stated.

Sally looked to her. "What?" she asked.

"That green planet with the orange spirals all over it, it's gone!"

Sally sat up slowly looking to the sky before Bella grabbed her and pointed to their right. "So did that one there, did you see?"

"I dunno, I must've blinked," Sally shrugged as she squinted a little.

"Well don't!" said Bella, jumping to her feet and scanning the planets.

"That one that kind of looked like Saturn just vanished!" Sally gasped as she too stood up.

"I told you!" she said excitedly. "Dylan," she yelled towards the house. "DYLAN,"

A few moments past before Dylan burst through the front door, holding a fire-poker up in front of him like some kind of sword. "What is it? Are you okay?" he asked them both as her looked around wildly as if he were expecting a Dalek to come from anywhere.

"The planets are disappearing," Bella said, bounding over to him, grabbing his arm and pointing up to the sky.

The three of them watched with wide eyes as one by one, each of the planets disappeared, leaving the Earth, the Dalek ships and the mysterious soft red galaxy behind. Bella moved forward taking in the beauty of this piece of space and a few moments later the hundreds of Dalek ships began to explode. A shock wave moved over the Earth and the three of them were knocked off their feet and onto the ground.

Bella sat up, staring at the sky in horror which seemed to become alight with fire before Dylan dragged her to her feet and pulled her towards the house. They all reached the steps before the ground beneath them began to shake and wind began to tear at them. They grabbed hold anything solid near them and held on for dear life, yelling loudly and closing their eyes.

Eventually it stopped as quickly as it started, but Bella kept her eyes shut and clung onto the stone pillar still. It was a few moments before she realised that there was a bright light trying to get past her eye lids. Was she dead? Thinking that there was only one way to find out, Bella slowly opened her eyes and she blinked a couple of times before she understood. It was sunlight.

"We're back," she said quietly, letting go of the pillar and walking down the stairs and onto the grass to look up to the cloudless blue sky. She gave a laugh as Sally and Dylan hugged happily.

"Haha, YES!" cried Dylan triumphantly, punching the air before picking up Bella and swinging her around.

Bella laughed when he put her back down as he watched Sally cartwheel around the front yard and Dylan did a few front flips and 'whooped' joyfully. She looked up to the sky again, feeling warm from the bright sunlight, smiling. They had been saved yet again from aliens.

Bella sat outside in front of the stone stables that night, just watching as the rain fell heavily to the ground. She gave a small smile and thought that it was as though nothing had ever happened, that the Earth had never been moved, that the Dalek creatures had never invaded.

Of course, there were obvious signs that these things had indeed occurred. There were hundreds of people missing and some had even been declared dead, Harriett Jones being among them. There had been significant damage to buildings and infrastructure, but there had already been people on television saying that none of it had ever happened; that it had been a mass hallucination.

But Bella had known it had all happened. She believed it. And she knew that someone had saved them all. Earth and all the other planets; everyone's life was saved by someone and Bella's mind burned with curiosity, wondering who this fantastic, wonderful person was…


	3. Ep1 The Stolen Home CH1

Episode one: The Stolen Home CH1

The Doctor walked innocently toward a beautiful, well kept, white-stone, two-story old house in Nailwell, just south-west of Bath. He looked into the two large windows at the front of the house before walking around to the back of the house, past the pond. He stopped to observe the medium sized water fountain before glancing at the stone shed and the horse stable. He then turned back to the house and walked in the back door, which was already unlocked.

Once inside he found that he was in a music room, with a gorgeous dark wooden Grand Piano, a violin, a guitar and a smallish drum kit. After playing a few notes on the piano as he walked past, he made his way into the hallway. To his right was a bathroom, and directly opposite him was a fancy dining room. Next to the music room was the lounge room with a fantastic pool table and opposite that was the kitchen.

Between the lounge room and the kitchen was a staircase leading both upstairs and down. The Doctor chose to go downstairs first, which led to a stone cellar. _Someone certainly likes their comforts_, the Doctor thought to himself as he picked up a one hundred year old Scottish Scotch. He had a quick look around down there before heading back upstairs to the second floor.

He went into the first room on his left and found it to be a study with a fantastic collection of books, some of the greatest novels ever written in fact. He looked at every title and picked up a particularly tattered book that had been left on the soft reading chair in the corner next to the window. It was an ancient copy of _The Lord of the Rings_. In the opposite corner to this he found a bookcase full of textbooks, which held everything from the history of Brittan to detailed information about different planets and stars. _Someone in this house hold was very smart indeed_, the Doctor thought to himself.

He checked the next room on the left, which was another bathroom, so he moved onto the final door on the left. This room smelt a bit off, so he checked under the bed, in the chest of draws and inside the wardrobe, where he found something odd; one skirt and top for a lady and one pair of trousers and a shirt for a man, with about twenty unused coat-hangers.

"This is a bit alien," he said out loud.

He walked to the room directly opposite and opened the door, which creaked open. He coughed slightly as a layer of dust went up his nose.

The room was dark as the curtains had been left shut and it smelt as though it had been locked up for many years. The dust had settled on everything, the floor, the four-poster bed, and the picture frames (which were face down on the mantel piece). He closed the door quietly, coming to the conclusion that no one had entered that room in at least five years, and moved to the final room.

As he opened the door he felt himself smile. This had to be his favourite room by far. There were posters of various bands like Muse, Queen and The Doors and pictures of a young strawberry-blonde girl with horses three times the size of her and a girl with black hair, grinning broadly. There was a pile of books on the floor beside a white suede reading chair that had pyjama's strewn over them. _It was obviously a teenagers room_, he thought to himself grinning.

He suddenly heard a car pull up and he legged it very fast back downstairs and out the door he came in, so he one, didn't get caught in someone else's house and two, so he could get a look at them.

Once outside he poked his head around the back of the house in time to see a red Vauxhall Vectra drive slowly into the garage, before an overweight couple walked out from the garage door towards the kitchen door.

"Come on Mark, we need to get ready," the lady said, the Doctor getting the impression that she called all the shots in the relationship. "The rest of the family will be here soon."

The Doctor's ears pricked up. _The rest of the family_, he repeated in his head.

"Not to mention that blasted girl." The lady continued. "I will be glad when this is over and done with so we can go home!"

"Yes, dear," the man said glumly, as the Doctor watched them disappear into the kitchen, his eyes narrowed.

"I still can't believe they let you off today!" Sally Brenner exclaimed walking close to her shorter best friend, who was smiling.

"They actually asked me to leave for a while," Bella Lumic said shrugging. "Said they were having guests over and didn't want me in the way."

Sally stopped in her tracks and looked to Bella, observing her face's features. Her long strawberry-blonde hair framed her face, which had pale freckles covering it. Her bright blue eyes dominated a person's full attention; the only thing that distracted a person from them was her breathtaking smile.

"They actually said that?" Sally asked, her temper quickly rising. "Bella, that's horrible! All the things you do for them and they do this? I mean, it's not even _their_ house, for God's sake!"

"Please don't get all worked up about it again, Sal," Bella sighed, putting her hands in the pockets of her black overcoat.

"No, this isn't fair, Bella!" Sally said, putting her hands on her hips. _Clearly a bad sign_, Bella thought cringing. "Mary and John completely control your life! You aren't aloud to go out anywhere, unless it's work, they don't let you go out drinking with us, and they won't even let you go to university! You got the best marks in our whole school. Near perfect results and you're letting them go to waste!"

"I am not letting them go to waste. I don't have the money to go to university anyway. Besides, they need me here," Bella said quietly. "They are getting on in years now, and somebody has to look after the house –"

"What are you talking about? You _already_ look after _everything_! You must be the only eighteen year-old who isn't out with their mates having a good time. Well, you and all the other sci-fi fanatics out there!"

"Hey!" Bella laughed. "There is _nothing _wrong with being a sci-fi nerd, thank you very much!"

Sally finally caved and smiled. "You are going to be the only one left here when term starts and we all go to university, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know." Bella nodded sadly, wishing that she could be going to university too. "But we can write to each other and chat online and I will call you regularly to find out what Oxford is like. You'll be down on holidays, won't you, so it's not like we are going to be on different planets!"

"Yeah, yeah," Sally said dismally, glancing down to her watch. "Blimey, look at the time! I'd better get back to work or the boss'll have my head! I will call you later tonight about coming to the pub for a drink, okay?"

Bella nodded unenthusiastically.

"Oh, come on, Belle!" Sally groaned. "Dylan will be there."

"Get out of here, you minx!" Bella sighed.

She laughed before she turned and started running back through the small shopping court, little old ladies scowling in her directions as she ran past. Smiling, Bella watched as her tall, slim pixie-like best friend nearly ran into an older man. She turned laughing slightly to herself and began walking toward up the 'main' street which led out of Tundry and headed towards Nailwell.

It was about an hour's walk along the very un-busy road back to her small farm, which had once belonged to her parents before they died. She listened to her Ipod as she walked past green fields of sheep, cows and horses. The only reason why she was walking was because her carers had taken her car this morning up to Bath. They had a weird way of asking her permission. They were lucky she didn't have to work today; otherwise she would have been about an hour and a half late. She didn't take much in as she walked and soon found herself at her front gate, which was covered in flowers.

She stopped and smiled. As Sally had said before, Bella practically _did_ look after the place all by herself. She was proud of that fact. The lawns surrounding the nineteenth century home were well kept and luscious and the gardens were striving. Everything was kept neat and tidy, just the way she liked it.

"Hello,"

"_Ah_!" Bella cried jumping to her right as someone emerged from the bushes on her left.

It was a man; a tall man who was quite good looking in Bella's personal opinion. She quickly took in his appearance. He was a tall (Bella only came up to under his shoulders) skinny man with chocolate brown hair (that was scruffed up) and eyes and his face was split into a wide, friendly grin. He wore a dark brown pinstriped suit (the pinstripes being blue), with a long, light brown overcoat and grey Converse shoes, that seemed had been worn for a long time.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," the man said happily, still grinning. "Thought I would say hello, you know, seeing as you stopped and all." He paused, surveying Bella as her heart rate returned to normal. "Do you know who lives here?"

Bella gaped at him. "Of course I know who lives here!"

"Really?" The man asked enthusiastically. "Who?"

"_I_ do!"

"Oh," The man said, his face falling slightly. "Well, you don't seem like one…" He said as he moved closer to her.

"Sorry?" Bella asked, taking a step back from him, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

"What?" He said stopping. "Oh, I'm just talking complete rubbish again, don't mind me."

"Who are you?"

"Me?" The man asked, looking around as if Bella had been talking to someone behind him before continuing. "Oh, I'm nobody. Just think of me as a friend you haven't met yet."

Bella frowned, feeling confused. "But we have met… Just now…"

The man seemed to think this statement through for a moment, before grinning at her again. "Hmm, you're right!"

Bella smiled slightly, moving toward her front gate. "Right, well, I am just going to go inside now –"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Bella stopped and looked to the man, his smile gone and his tone sounded as if he was warning her.

"Why not?" She asked alarmed slightly.

"I just wouldn't," The man said, shrugging off her question.

She looked at him closely, her eyes slightly narrowed as he looked at her. There was something about this man that she liked, something that made her automatically want to trust him. Maybe she should listen to him?

"Look," she said politely, remembering her manners. "I am sorry if it seems that I don't trust you, sir, but as we have only just discovered we _have_ only just met and it _is_ my own house."

The man looked at her for a moment before a small smile formed on his face. "Yes of course. It was nice talking to you."

"You too," Bella smiled before turning and opening her front gate and walking down her front path. When she walked up the front stone steps and opened the front door, she turned and looked back to see the man still standing where she had left him. Their eyes met briefly before the man turned and disappeared behind the tall shrubs.

"What an odd man," she said smiling, walking into the house and putting her bag on the table beside the door and taking her coat off and hanging it on the peg.

"Bella?" Floated Mary's voice from in the living room. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," Bella called back. _Who else would it be_, Bella thought to herself. She had lately begun thinking that Mary and her husband John had become a bit senile in their old age.

"Would you come into the living room for a moment please?" Mary asked. "We would like you to meet out _friends_."

Feeling slightly confused, Bella agreed. Hadn't they wanted her _out_ of the house so she wouldn't have to meet them? She walked up the hallway and into the living room, looking around.

There were five other people in the room besides Mary and Mark. Mary was a greying impatient woman who was in her mid-forties. She was of average height and pretty old fashioned as was her husband, Mark. He was in his early fifties with a moustache and taller than his wife who pushed him around easily. Closest to Bella on her left was an old lady wearing a flowery dress with white gloves, shoes and a handbag, next to her were two young boys with sandy blond hair in a school uniform from the local school in Tundry. Beside them were Mary and Mark, and then next were a young couple, probably in their twenties. It seemed the only thing that every one in the room had in common (with the exception of Bella) was that they were all fairly plump.

"You – uh – wanted me Mary?" Bella asked hesitantly well aware of the fact that everyone was now staring at her in a weird way.

"Ah, Bella," Mary said smiling. "Mark and I wanted to introduce you to our _friends_."

"Hello," She said uncertainly, feeling very uncomfortable. Something didn't feel right.

"_This_," Mark said. "Is John Lumic's daughter, the one we have been telling you about for so long now."

"Oh, isn't she beautiful," cooed the little old lady. "We've heard _so_ much about you."

"Yes," said the twins at the same time. "So much."

Bella attempted a smile, but it looked more like a grimace. She suddenly had the urge to run screaming from the house, something that she had never felt the need to do before.

The little old lady passed wind, giggling. "Oops!" She said as everyone else laughed.

Bella looked around raising an eyebrow, not knowing whether she should be feeling repulsed or concerned for everybody's mental wellbeing. The only people who should be giggling like twelve year olds should be the twins – who were twelve. Her thoughts quickly drifted to the man she had only just met and the warning he had only just given her.

"Would anyone like a cup of tea?" Bella asked feeling panic rising in her chest. She needed to get out of the house and find that man.

"Not now, sweetheart," Mary said, standing up. _Since when has Mary called me sweetheart_, Bella thought to herself before Mary quickly grabbed her. Bella gasped, alarmed at her strength. "We have a surprise for you, don't we Mark?"

"Oh, yes Bella," Mark said grinning, moving toward her. "Such a marvellous surprise."

Mary suddenly let her go and lifted, like everyone else, her hand to her forehead, where it looked like they were unzipping their skin. Horrified, Bella stood watching as a bright light filled the room and the skin began peeling off everyone, revealing a large, slimy, green head and gleaming black eyes.


	4. Ep1 The Stolen Home CH2

The Stolen Home Chapter Two

The Doctor walked slowly back to the TARDIS. Surely that girl must have known that there were Slitheen living in her home with her. She seemed like the bright type, observant, smart, things like that. But maybe Torchwood had gotten it wrong. Maybe there wasn't Slitheen living in _this_ house. Maybe it was next door.

_No_, the Doctor thought to himself. He might not agree with Captain Jack Harkness on a lot of things, but he doesn't generally get addresses wrong. The congregation of Slitheen _had_ to be in that house, whether the girl was involved or even knew about them was a whole other story. Not to mention the information he had gained from eavesdropping to the two older people's conversation.

Of course, the flatulence had to be a dead giveaway.

Smiling slightly, the Doctor put his key into the TARDIS's door and opened it. Maybe he should ring Jack and double check that he had the right place before he barged into the house with bottles of vinegar and demanding that they surrender and leave planet Earth.

Which made the Doctor realise he needed to acquire some vinegar before barging into the house and demanding that they surrender and leave planet Earth.

He closed the TARDIS doors and began to take off his light brown overcoat when he heard a shrill, terrified scream. Turning on his heel, the Doctor decided that he would have to do with out the vinegar for the time being.

Bella screamed in terror and ran backwards out the living room door into the hallway. Thinking on her feet, she ran to the right, bursting into the kitchen, where she slammed and locked the door, leaning on it with her eyes closed to support herself, breathing heavily.

"That probably _won't_ stop them."

Bella cried out in shock, her eyes flying open. The man who had warned her not to come into the house leant against the wall on the opposite side of the kitchen, watching her.

"Who the hell are you?" Bella asked emotionally.

"Yeah, see, I noticed that we didn't introduce ourselves earlier, which is pretty weird considering it's normally the very first thing I do when –"

"Look, I really don't mean to be rude," Bella said quickly, panic edging its way into her voice. "But I don't really have time to have a lovely chat –"

BANG!

"Oh God, they're trying to get in!" Bella yelled jumping away from the door.

"It's alright, we just need vinegar." The man said calmly, walking around the table to stand beside her.

"Vinegar," Bella repeated," Why vinegar?"

"You've seen the Wizard of Oz, right?" The man asked, searching through the cupboard closest to him. "Well, these creatures are primarily made up of calcium, so when they come into contact with vinegar they kinda do a Wicked Witch – only they don't melt…"

Bella's eyes widened as the man put jars on the table. She moved quickly over to the pantry and pulled out a jar of white vinegar.

"Brilliant!" The man said. "Have you got anything else? Check the fridge."

She did as she was told, too terrified to do anything else. She was a little opposed to killing these creatures, considering they hadn't technically done anything to her yet.

She walked over to the fridge and opened it as the man poured vinegar into jars. She searched through the fridges contents.

"What about pickled onions?"

"Brilliant!" he said as she placed the jar on the bench.

"And some watermelon that probably should have been thrown out last week," she added, shutting the fridge and taking the lid off the watermelon and smelling it before pulling a face.

She looked up to the man, feeling his eyes on her.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way." He told her, holding out his hand.

"I'm Bella," She said, shaking his hand.

"Pleased to meet you Bella," the Doctor grinned, liking her already. "Now, let's fill up these empty Jars and put them in your pockets."

"Are we going to kill them?" Bella asked. "Isn't there a better way at getting rid of them?"

The Doctor looked to her, liking her even more just for a comment like that. "This is only a last resort."

She nodded before the Doctor got back to filling the jars with vinegar, pickled onions and bad watermelon.

"W-what are they?"

"They are called Slitheen," the Doctor explained as he worked, feeling her intelligent eyes watching his every move. Not because she mistrusted him, merely because she was blissfully curious.

"And they are alien,"

The Doctor looked at her. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. "Yes."

"And they steal people's skin and use them like suits?"

The Doctor nodded. "I am sorry," he said honestly. "There is nothing I can do for the people you once knew now."

Bella nodded, trying to keep her voice level. "I think they've been here for about three years… That's when they changed… Mary and Mark… They've been dead for three years and I didn't even notice!"

The Doctor watched her while she tried to compose herself.

"You're not from around these parts either are you?" Bella said eventually, looking him directly in the eye.

"You're good," The Doctor smiled reassuringly. She had caught on very quick.

"Are you like them?" She whispered. "Are you alien too?"

The Doctor paused. "I won't lie to you. I am like them in the sense that I don't come from planet Earth, but that's where the similarities end thankfully." He observed her for a moment. _Doesn't look too freaked out_, he thought. "The Slitheen are cruel and they kill for the sake of killing. They do not have any mercy."

"Hang on," Bella said, frowning as if trying to remember something. "These Slitheen creatures, weren't they the things that took over Downing Street in London? Didn't they kill the Prime Minister and impersonate various members of British Parliament?"

The Doctor gaped at her. "How did you know that?"

"Rumours spread," she shrugged. "Hardly anyone believed them, of course. Most people thought it was some kind of strategy done by Harriett Jones to make people vote for her. The internet is very resourceful, you know."

"Did you hack into government web sites?" He asked feeling amused.

"Might have done," Bella told him indifferently, making the Doctor grin at her. "I however, believed all the stories about the aliens… Especially after that massive space ship a few Christmas's ago and then Titanic the year before last." She paused, unaware of the Doctor's gaping face, "How did you know they were in my house? I mean, you did know about them, didn't you, because you warned me not to come in here."

"I had a tip off from someone at Torchwood," The Doctor said observing Bella with a bemused look on his face._ She knew a lot for a human_, _or rather, believed a lot_. "They said that there was some Slitheen activity in the outer areas of southern Bath." He quickly walked over to the door and tipped out the off watermelon onto the floor.

"Putting aside the fact that I have never heard of _Torchwood_," Bella said, watching the Doctor just as intently as he was watching her. "How did you figure out they were living in my house?"

"Well, lucky for me I decided to turn up on a day that the two head Slitheen decided to have a tea party." The Doctor said walking back over to her. "If I didn't hear you scream I would have just listened for their rather embarrassing flatulence problem they develop when they are in human disguise because of the rubbish gas exchange."

The Slitheen outside the kitchen door screeched angrily at the Doctor's comment and the Doctor grinned and moved quickly over to one of the windows facing out to the front of the house and opened it before climbing through it.

"Doctor?" Bella asked staring at the window.

The Doctor stood up and looked through the open window at her. "C'mon," He said motioning her forward with his hands. "We need to figure out why the Slitheen have singled you out and the kitchen isn't exactly the best place to do that at the moment."

Bella did as she was told thinking it odd that he didn't just use the door leading outside. She moved to the window and climbed through it after the mysterious man, just as the Slitheen broke down the kitchen door, the Slitheen in front coming into contact with the vinegar.

The Doctor grabbed her and pulled her to the ground as green slime shot out of the window. Furious screams followed.

"Well, I think that made them angry," The Doctor said, jumping up. Bella did the same before he grabbed her hand and said, grinning, "Run!"

And so they ran quickly, the Doctor leading Bella towards the fence. Bella didn't know if they had anywhere to run to, but she didn't stop to ask. She held onto the Doctor's hand too scared to look back.

"Why didn't we just go through the door?" Bella asked as they ran.

"What?" the Doctor asked, not slowing down.

"In the kitchen, there was a door leading outside," Bella told him. "Why go through the window when you could have gone through the door?"

"It was more fun going through the window," the Doctor replied making Bella grin at him.

As they reached the wooden fence, Bella suddenly pulled the Doctor to a stop. "The car!" she said, before running towards the garage, the Doctor following close behind her.

They pulled the garage door up before the Doctor ran to the passenger side and Bella running to the driver's side.

"Aw, man!" she exclaimed angrily as the Doctor looked up to her. "This would have to be the one day they _don't_ leave the keys in the ignition!"

"C'mon," the Doctor said turning around and making a quick decision to take Bella back to the TARDIS so they could work out what it was the Slitheen wanted. He grabbed her hand and they were running again, across the front of the house until they were suddenly cut off by two younger Slitheen, making the Doctor and Bella skid to a stop.

"Hello," the Doctor said enthusiastically, keeping hold of Bella's hand. "I've never met little Slitheen before!"

"Watch who you're calling little Slitheen, skinny!" one of them said furiously.

"Oh, I don't think they liked that," the Doctor said quietly.

"I don't blame them," Bella said, smiling ever-so-slightly.

Four more Slitheen walked up behind them. They were now surrounded.

"Ah," The Doctor said looking at them all.

"You murdered one of us!" One of the Slitheen said moving forward, its voice all crackly yet, to Bella, it still sounded like Mary's voice.

"Yeah, well, you weren't exactly playing fair were you?" The Doctor said calmly. "And besides, it was acetic acid, you should have been able to smell it."

"You murdered the people whose skin you stole," Bella added quietly. "I guess that's Karma, for you."

The Doctor grinned at her and she gave a small smile in return. _She certainly had guts_, he thought.

"Who are you to decide if we are playing _fair_ or not?" The Mary Slitheen ordered. "You humans have no idea what we are!"

"There is only one human here," The Doctor stated. "And I am pretty sure she knows what you are."

The Slitheen all looked to Bella, who said fearlessly "the Slitheen."

They all growled.

"Who are you?" Mary ordered lunging towards the Doctor and Bella.

"A traveller," The Doctor answered moving Bella behind him quickly. If she was want they wanted he would do his utmost in protecting her.

"From where?" the Mary Slitheen ordered.

"Gallifrey,"

The Slitheen all growled angrily.

"The Doctor," the Slitheen behind Mary said, and Bella recognised it as Mark's voice. "Of course! Who else would try and help a complete stranger? Well, Doctor, your heroism will be in vain. Take her!"

The two young Slitheen behind the Doctor and Bella suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Bella, pulling her from the Doctor's grasp.

"_Doctor_!" she yelled struggling against her captors who were now tackling her down to the ground. "What the-?" she gasped as they lay on top of her.

"Bella!" the Doctor cried. "What do you want from her? Tell me!"

"Why should we tell you, Doctor?"

"Because I could help you," the Doctor said desperately as Bella continued to struggle to get the heavy Slitheen off her.

The Slitheen laughed.

"You don't even know why we are here," Mary said, still laughing.

"I think I can guess," the Doctor said slowly. "You're all stuck on earth and you can't get home. OH!" he yelled suddenly. "Did your spaceship break down or something? Do you need Bella to fix it?"

"Our ship works perfectly fine!" Mark snapped angrily.

"But you're still stuck on earth…" The Doctor said. "Why?"

"We were sent here with specific orders," Mary said coldly.

"What orders? And why do you need a human?"

"She is the brightest human on earth, or so we've been told. She is what our master wants." Mary explained grudgingly.

"Why would someone want me?" Bella asked her voice sounding slightly strained as the two Slitheen still lay on top of her giggling like mad. "I'm nothing special!"

For a fleeting moment and with a painful pang, the Doctor was reminded of Donna. "Since when do the Slitheen have a _master_? Who is he? Is he Slitheen?"

"He is not of Slitheen kind," Mary said. "He is of human origin. Apparently he used to live on this hell hole."

"Oi!" Bella said outraged. "You never had to stay here you know. You could have left. I could have kicked you out as soon as I was eighteen!"

"Human origin?" the Doctor repeated. He scratched his head, perplexed. "Let her go and I will come with you,"

Mary smiled. "Curiosity killed the cat, as the simple humans say. Let her go,"

The young Slitheen groaned. "But mum –"

"Just do it," Mary said in a tired voice.

The two young Slitheen grumbled under their breaths as they rolled off Bella, lying on the ground as though they were about to throw a tantrum. Bella stood up and brushed herself off.

The Doctor turned and motioned for Bella to come to him, which she did, shaking ever so slightly. He gently took her hand and he noticed that she accepted it eagerly.

"Get off the ground," Mary said, scolding her children.

"No!" they said stubbornly.

"Do as your mother says or you'll have to go and wait in the ship!" Mark said sternly.

The Doctor shared a quick amused glance with Bella, both of them trying not to laugh.

"See, this is your problem," Mary suddenly said to Mark. "You always give them a chance."

Mark growled angrily. "Well, what would you have me do?"

"Take them to the ship for Fel Fotch's sake!" Mary said angrily.

"Fine!" he said furiously, grabbing his children by the arm and dragging them kicking and screaming towards the back of the property.


	5. Ep1 The Stolen Home CH3

The Stolen Home CH3

"Now, if you would like to follow me," Mary growled angrily before she began to walk in front of the Doctor and Bella, who followed, the two remaining Slitheen falling in behind them. The Doctor could feel Bella look up to him occasionally but he kept his eyes the back of the leader's head, trying to come up with some kind of plan. It was then that he realised they were being led to the garden shed.

"What's in there?" The Doctor asked Bella quietly.

"Just stuff for the garden, saddles, food for the animals, stuff like that." Bella whispered.

"And you've never seen anything odd?"

"No," Bella said, shaking her head. "Nothing." She paused before adding; "But I do always get this feeling when I'm in there, thought…"

"What does it feel like?" he asked her. Any clue would be good about now.

"Like there's something there, but I just can't see it…"

The Slitheen stoped and opened the double wooden doors to the stone shed and ushered the Doctor and Bella inside, where they both stopped.

"That would be because of the perception filter they've put on the dirty great hole in the ground." the Doctor said in a blasé voice, referring to the large gaping metal hole in the stone floor which had a ladder leading down into the darkness.

She looked up to him looking dumbfounded. "I've never ever been able to see it before." She paused, looking back down to the hole, gaping. "How come?"

"Because they've never wanted you to see it before." The Doctor explained quietly. "It's not a bomb shelter then?"

"That's under the house in the cellar." Bella told him shaking her head.

"Enough chat," Said Mary. "You will climb down there after I go, understand?"

"And if I climb down there and I find out what your plan is and I don't like it, I _will_ stop you." The Doctor said matter-of-factly, feeling Bella's eyes on him again.

"I very much doubt that, Doctor." Mary said sweetly.

"We'll see," the Doctor said simply, before they watched the tall Slitheen disappear into darkness.

Eventually she called up to them and the Doctor gave Bella a reassuring smile before moving to the ladder, beginning to climb down into the darkness. It didn't take long for him to find the bottom, where lights had come on, revealing a metal and concrete tunnel, wide enough to fit two ordinary people abreast. As he waited for Bella to join them he noted how similar this tunnel was to the tunnels in the parallel universe that led to the Cybermen factories. Even the ladder and the seal above them reminded him of the tunnels.

Bella jumped down the last run of the ladder and looked around her, moving to the Doctor's side. "It's all very alien, isn't it?"

The Doctor turned to grin at her. _She was handling the whole alien thing really well_, the Doctor thought to himself as Bella smiled weakly back at him.

The two other Slitheen now joined them in the tunnel, making it rather cramped.

"Follow me." Mary said beginning to walk deeper into the tunnel, the lights on the walls turning on as she walked forward.

The Doctor and Bella exchanged a quick glance before following silently side-by-side, the other two Slitheen following close behind. They were led down a set of steps and into another room, the temperature dropping slightly, enough to make goose bumps form on Bella's arms. On the opposite side of the room was a small, metal, one person space ship.

"What is that?" The Doctor asked, letting curiosity get the better of him. He walked over to the strange looking space ship in five easy strides, getting his sonic screwdriver out and beginning to examine it.

"How did you manage to build all this with me noticing?" Bella asked, looking around and the Doctor noticed that it was amazement not fear on her face now. She looked inside the boxes closest to her and observed large, silver needles.

"We didn't build these tunnels," Mary said. "They were built before you were born."

"But this house has been in my family for generations!" Bella argued, showing no fear now. She wanted answers, and she was going to get them. "These tunnels must have been built when the house was, but there is no record of them whatsoever on the plans –"

"These tunnels were completed nineteen years ago," said one of the other Slitheen. It was the little old lady.

"Nineteen," Bella repeated, feeling (and looking, the Doctor thought) confused. "That would have been in nineteen-ninety, the year _before_ I was born…"

The Doctor looked up to her, realising she was only eighteen, a year younger that Rose had been when he had first met her.

"But my parents lived here then," Bella continued. "Surely they would have noticed you –"

"We didn't build these tunnels!" Mary snapped, obviously getting frustrated.

"Well, who did then?" Bella asked equally frustrated. "It's not like my parents built them!"

The three Slitheen remained silent, exchanging quick glances that the Doctor didn't miss.

"Seeing as you aren't going to answer her," The Doctor said standing up and turning to the Slitheen. "Answer me this; there seems to be a part missing, what is it? Is that what you need Bella for? Does she have the part?"

"She does not _have_ the part we need," said the old lady, Mary hitting her. Obviously, the Doctor thought, she had said too much.

"Well, then why do you – "The Doctor stopped midsentence, realising what the Slitheen meant. "Ahh…" he said quietly looking to Bella.

"What?" Bella asked him, looking worried. "What is it?"

"You don't _have_ the part they need,"

"Well, that's good –"

"Bella, you _are_ the part they need." The Doctor finished as the colour in Bella's cheeks vanished and her eyes widened. "But I don't understand," he continued, turning back to the Slitheen. "Who is your master and why does he want Bella?"

"Our master only wants the _machine_," Mary explained coldly. "The _girl_ is just the means of getting it there."

"And you've had to wait three years?" The Doctor asked trying to remember everything that Bella had told him earlier.

"She had to be the right age," the old lady said. "Fifteen was much too young, both mentally _and_ physically. The journey would kill her before she even reached the destination, and our master wanted her alive on arrival. He has plans for her there."

"Who is this _master_?" The Doctor ordered, feeling very frustrated now.

"Her father," Mary and John said together.

The Doctor looked to Bella, whose expression was impossible to read.

"My father is dead." She said and the Doctor could see pain in her eyes that she would not allow to reach her face. "He died thirteen years ago."

"How?" the Doctor asked softly.

"A car accident," she answered shortly.

"Are you sure –"

"Yes I'm sure," She said, a slight edge to her voice. "I saw it happen and I later buried him!" She looked down, taking a deep breath to calm herself, giving the Doctor the impression that she didn't often show her emotions. "Trust me, he's defiantly dead."

The Doctor surveyed her for a moment before looking back to the Slitheen. "What's in it for you anyway?"

"Our master has paid us generously –"

"Money?" The Doctor interrupted. "Why is it always about money?"

"These are tough times, Doctor," Said Mary coldly. "We need to make acquaintances if we wish to keep our place in the universe. But now, I am sick of talking to you."

"Doctor!" gasped Bella as she saw the other Slitheen behind him raise its massive arm ready to hit him forcefully over the head. He looked at her as she jumped over the boxes before she grabbed him and pulled him forwards towards her. He spun round in time to see the Slitheen growl and knock Bella over the side of her head, throwing her sideways into the hard wall.

"Oi," the Doctor yelled angrily before the old lady Slitheen grabbed his arms and pulled him backwards away from Bella. "What did you do that for?" he asked the Slitheen standing over Bella. "You could see that it wasn't me! She didn't deserve that, she's done nothing to you –"

"Shut up, Doctor." Mary said dully.

"She's never seen an alien before," the Doctor continued glaring at her. "Mind, she _was_ handling it rather well – but you didn't have to hit her over the head!"

"Don't you ever stop talking?" Mary asked, putting her claw to her forehead. "We never said we needed her conscious," Mary added, sounding tired. She turned to the Slitheen standing over Bella and said "Put her into place."

"No!" The Doctor gasped, watching as the Slitheen lifted her up. "You can't do this without telling me why and who!"

"I don't think so, Doctor. My _stupid_ cousins may have told you their plans so you could merrily thwart them, but we are not so foolish!"

The Doctor remained silent, his mind working at a hundred miles an hour as he tried to think of a way to save Bella. He watched helplessly as the Slitheen holding her half carried, half dragged Bella across the hard cement floor to the apparent space ship. It pressed a button and the hatch opened, revealing a seat with some kind of helmet that the Doctor instantly recognised as –

"Cybermen technology!" he gasped.

"There are things in her pockets," The Slitheen said.

"Well, take them out and strap her in so we can get going!" Mary sighed. "I just want to get back to Raxacoricofallapatorius and be rid of this awful planet."

"They're jars," Said the Slitheen. "It's filled with an unidentifiable liquid." It added.

_Of course_, The Doctor said to himself, _the jars full of vinegar_!

"Just be careful," Mary advised. "Check the Doctor too."

The Slitheen took out a bottle of vinegar from Bella's jumper's pocket and the five in the Doctor's long overcoat and put them in a pile in the middle of the room.

"You need to stop this," the Doctor warned. "I am giving you one last chance to stop because I know from experience what it's like to lose family."

Mary giggled. "So does Bella, you'd make the cutest couple. Now hurry up!' she barked to the Slitheen.

_Fine_, the Doctor said in his head. _Have it your way_.

As Bella was tied into the space craft, the Doctor sneezed loudly.

"Sorry," he apologised, turning to the Slitheen, that was once a kind caring little old lady holding his right arm. "Could you just let go of my arm for a moment, need to get my handkerchief out – damn cold."

Amazingly, the Slitheen obeyed and let go of his right arm, allowing him to feel around the inside of his over coat until he found what he was looking for.

"You know how I warned you and said that if I didn't like the plan, I would stop it?" He asked Mary innocently. "Well, this is me, stopping you!"

"NO!" Mary screamed.

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the glass jars filled with vinegar and pushed the button, causing them to explode all over the Slitheen – each one of them blowing up, depositing a thick, gluggy slime everywhere, including on the Doctor and Bella.

He rushed over to Bella and untied the steel ropes that tied her to the craft. She stirred and opened her eyes, looking at the Doctor in amazement.

"You're covered in slime!"

The Doctor smiled and helped her up. "So are you."

She looked down at herself and grinned. "So, they are gone?" She asked, rubbing her head.

"Yep," the Doctor said looking around at the mess he had caused. "I'll get Torchwood to locate their ship, make sure there are none on board and then do what ever it is they do."

"What happened?" she asked him. "How did you do it?"

He quickly explained to her what happened with the jars of vinegar before extending his arm and helping her up out of the small space ship that worried him so much.

"Did you find out who wanted me?" Bella asked; panic edging its way into her voice again.

"No, I didn't." The Doctor said quietly. "But you don't need to worry about them any more Bella."

She nodded and smiled at him before they followed the tunnel back out the way they had come and climbed the metal ladder back out. The Doctor closed the steel hatch and locked it shut with the sonic screwdriver before Bella threw an old rug over it to cover it up. Once they were outside the stone shed the Doctor helped Bella dispose of the skin suits that the Slitheen had left behind in a very deep hole in the back paddock. Once they had finished that, Bella looked at the Doctor curiously.

"So," she started. "Where is _your_ space ship?"

The Doctor grinned at her. "Do you want to have a look?"

Bella smiled and nodded enthusiastically as the Doctor led the way around the house, down the front path, out the front gate and turned right onto the deserted country lane, walking for a few meters and stopping at an old blue police box. He grinned at her.

"An old police box?" she asked sceptically, looking over it.

The Doctor unlocked the doors then stood back, leaning on it. He jerked his head, indicating for her to look inside. As a dark blue car drove past she moved forward hesitantly and opened the double doors, gasping with amazement.

"Its – its –"

"Bigger on the inside?" the Doctor suggested helpfully.

"Well, yes," Bella laughed looking to him. "But I was more thinking beautiful!"

The Doctor looked at her feeling ever-so-slightly stunned. _Beautiful_ was not generally a word he heard when other people saw the TARDIS for the first time.

"Are all space ships like this one?" she asked grinning as she took in the fantastic interior.

"No, she is special," The Doctor said watching Bella with amusement. "Unique. The only one left in this universe…"

"She? What's her name?"

"She is called the TARDIS. It stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space."

"The TARDIS," Bella said, taking a few steps in, beaming. "She is wonderful!"

"You could come with me," the Doctor said casually. "If you like…"

Bella stopped and turned to face him. "Travel with you? Throughout the whole universe?"

"Any place, _any_ time. The TARDIS doesn't just travel through space; she travels through time as well." The Doctor said, before adding, "But only if you want to."

"I – I would love to Doctor, but –"She paused. "I have to look after this place now – well, no more than I did before, but the animals can't look after themselves… I'm sorry…"

"No – I understand." The Doctor said quickly. "Responsibility and all that…" He trailed off, feeling disappointed. He thought that Bella would have liked it, travelling and he thought that he would have enjoyed taking her.

Bella nodded, the Doctor unable to read her expression as she walked past him into the cool evening air.

"I never said thank you, Doctor." She said quietly as a car drove past slowly.

"What for?" he asked her.

"For saving my life," she said softly, smiling slightly.

"Don't worry about it," the Doctor said, smiling now also. "It was my absolute pleasure." He turned and took a step into the TARDIS.

"Doctor?" called Bella moving forward.

He turned round quickly, hoping she had changed her mind.

"Will I ever see you again?"

The Doctor stood still for a moment, and then grinned at her. "Yeah, I'd like that."

Bella's face broke into a rather breathtaking smile. "Promise?"

"Promise," the Doctor agreed.

Bella nodded then turned.

"I'd watch this," the Doctor called, making Bella turn around again. She watched curiously as he winked at her and shut the TARDIS's doors, before the police box began making an eardrum shattering sound and began to materialize before her very eyes.

The Doctor and his TARDIS were gone.

She stared at the spot where the blue police box had been moments before and laughed softly. That man was truly amazing, she thought to herself smiling before her mobile phone suddenly rang in her jeans pocket, making her jump. She got it out (noticing a lot of slime all over her) and answered it. "Hello?"

"Bella, it's me, Sally," said her best friend on the other end of the phone line. Bella noted that she sounded excited. "My brother just drove past you Bella Lumic, talking to some bloke! You never meet anyone!"

"Wow, thanks Sally," Bella laughed, beginning to walk back towards her house.

"Well, who is he?" Sally asked excitedly. "Where did you meet him? What's he like?"

"Sally, it isn't anything like that –"

"Give me a description!" She ordered impatiently.

Bella sighed knowing that she was going to take this information in the wrong way. "Tall, skinny, great hair –"

"Well educated?" Sally offered. "Good looking? Responsible?"

"Yes," Bella laughed despite herself. "He's a doctor of some kind."

Sally squealed excitedly. "Ooohhh, this is so exciting! How did you meet him?"

"He, ah, kinda saved my life." Bella said truthfully.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she insisted. "Look, it's a really long story, so it might have to wait until tomorrow."

"Okay then," Sally said curiously. "Are you planning on seeing him again?"

Bella knew Sally was reading this conversation in the complete wrong way but it would have to wait until tomorrow to convince her of this as she was exhausted. "Yes," she said, before adding to herself, "Definitely…"


	6. Ep2 Hostage Situation CH1

Hostage Situation CH1

The Doctor moved around the centre console of his beloved TARDIS as Jack sat watching him. They had both managed to save Cardiff from destruction yet again; this time from a rampaging pile of bones that was a T-Rex that had escaped from Cardiff's National Museum due to a spectral alien that had fallen through the rift.

They were currently heading back from the alien's home planet after dropping it home so it wouldn't cause Cardiff – or the rest of the world – any more trouble. According to the Doctor, Earth didn't need any help at getting into trouble.

"So, Doctor, I would have thought you would have picked up some other stray by now," Captain Jack said casually in his American drawl, sitting on the orange seat in the TARDIS and watching the Doctor playing with the controls.

"I did," the Doctor said quietly, not looking to Jack.

Bella Lumic stirred on the stiff bed and awoke with a start. She stared at the unfamiliar metal roof blinking. Where was she? She sat up and the right side of her head instantly started throbbing. Putting her hand to her head, she looked around. She was in a cell, but how did she get here?

She had been in the kitchen, rummaging through the cupboards for some cookies to munch on while she watched the Friday night movie, which happened to be _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_. She had walked down from the kitchen, down the hallway and into the living room to sit down in time to see Harry Potter being chased by Barty Crouch Jr, who for a fleeting moment looked like the Doctor, the man who had saved her life a few weeks ago. The next and last thing she remembered was a sharp pain in the side of her head before waking up here.

She stood up and walked past something that was covered by a white sheet and looked out through the bars. It was odd. Everything was metal. There were buttons and levers and strange shaped things. There were doors on the other side of the room and a few meters left of the cell she was in. Directly opposite the cell was a large blank TV screen facing what Bella believed to be some kind of control panel. To Bella it looked like something from an old _Star Trek_ film.

"Hello?" she called out hesitantly.

No one answered, making her bite her lip nervously. Was she dreaming? She pinched herself and found that it hurt quite a lot. She wasn't asleep.

"Is anyone there? Anyone at all?" she called.

The door to Bella's left slid open in a sci-fi way and what looked like robots entered before two people dressed up as rhinos entered. But as they came closer, Bella remembered when that hospital went missing a few years ago and all the people inside it claimed that had been abducted by rhino-men.

They had a large head and two small ears on either side of their head. There were two horns (one larger than the other) about half way down their faces and teeth that weren't very sharp. They wore thick grey leather and massive black boots and it also looked like they could attach a space helmet on over their head. They were massive and quite intimidating and there was no way that they weren't real.

The two of them stopped in front of her and she moved backward a few steps, not knowing what to expect.

"You will remain silent." One of the rhino-men said in a deep voice.

"B-but where am I?" She stammered, undecided whether these things were scarier than the Slitheen or not.

"That is of no concern of yours, human." said the Rhinoceros-man.

"How can that be when it obviously _does_ concern me?" She snapped. "What am I doing here?"

"You are to be interviewed," Said the second rhino-man in pretty much the exact same voice.

"About what?" she asked, confused as to what she could possibly tell them.

"The whereabouts of the Time Lord known as the Doctor,"

"The Doctor," Bella repeated confused. "What is a _Time Lord_? And what are you?"

"We are the Judoon." The first creature said. "We are the universal police. And these are the Clockwork Droids."

Bella looked over to the robots called Clockwork droids, noting how appropriate the name was. Their heads were clear glass and inside were what Bella could guess as being pieces of gold clockwork.

"We shall be conducting the interviews." The first Judoon continued.

"Sorry, but I still don't understand!"

"You know the Doctor, do you not?" The first Judoon said.

"Yes, but –"

"Then you are valuable." He concluded. "The one we are working for needs all the information he can get on this Time Lord."

"Look, the only information I can give you is what he looks like –"

"Enough!" The Judoon barked. "We are not ready for you to talk yet: Droids, at your stations!"

Bella watched as the droids (dressed in a simple blue uniform) walked to the control panel and the Judoon walked out the same way they came in, the metal door sliding shut behind them.

"What the hell?" Bella muttered turning and walking towards the back of the cell. Her black Converse All Stars suddenly entangled themselves around the white sheet. She fell, pulling the sheet off with her. "I'm alright, nobody panic!" She said loudly before looking to the thing that was under the sheet and gaping.

It was mostly red and metal, with bronze coloured circles on the base section. It had two 'arms', one with a large sucker-thing (similar to a toilet plunger) and the other had some kind of odd whisk. There was a smaller third 'arm' on the thing's head that looked like the lens of a camera and there were two light bulbs on either side of its head.

It looked like the alien that had invaded Earth not too long ago, only a different colour to the ones she had seen back home; they had been a bronze.

She extended her arm and poked it. Nothing whatsoever happened.

"Great, I'm stuck in a tiny cell, with an overlarge vacuum cleaner." Bella said, slumping down on the bed. "No offense," she added gingerly, not knowing if the thing could hear her or not. "Great! Now I am talking to an overlarge vacuum cleaner who looks a little like Artoo-Detoo –"She stopped herself as she glanced upwards and saw a window.

Jumping up onto the bed, she looked out and gasped. Below her was planet Earth and all she could see through the heavy cover of cloud was the continent of Australia. She looked past the earth and saw the moon; she was between planet Earth and the sun.


	7. Ep2 Hostage Situation CH2

Bella sunk down to the uncomfortable bed, trying to take everything in. She had been abducted by aliens, brought onto a space ship and she was sitting in a holding cell being guarded by aliens who wanted information on a man she had only met once; the Doctor. It was lucky that she believed in aliens, otherwise she would have thought she was losing her mind.

She thought very deeply about what she was going to do when the Judoon began questioning her. Should she tell the truth, possibly resulting in something bad happening to the Doctor or should she make things up, potentially protecting the Doctor but also potentially endangering herself. Not that she knew all that much about the Doctor, she pointed out to herself.

Bella couldn't tell how long she had been sitting there, frozen in uncertainty, but every so often, the red piece of metal before seemed to move an inch or so.

"Bella Lumic," Said one of the Judoon (Bella had no idea whether it was one of the ones from before or not; they all seemed to look and sound the same).

She stood up quickly as they opened the cell door and walked in, hand cuffing her before leading her out. She said nothing, trying to think of some kind of plan to get her out of this situation and wondering how on Earth they knew who she was.

She couldn't run that she knew for sure. The Judoon would have been far too strong for her to be able to manage to get free of them and where would she go if she did?

As she walked she could feel her mobile phone in her pocket and she wished she had of got the Doctor's number, but then she remembered that he was an alien too and probably didn't have a mobile phone. And even if he did have a phone, what would she say?

Once out of the control room. The two Judoon led her down a corridor that had doors all the way down on her right and on her left were large windows, showing the earth beneath them. Bella couldn't help but stare down at it in wonder, her mouth hanging open. At the end of the corridor, they turned right into what Bella believed to be an interrogation room. They sat her in a steel chair and they sat down on the other side of the table.

The room was dark, cold and somewhat scary. She quickly ran through episodes of _CSI: Crime Scene Investigation_ in her head, but decided that it didn't really help. The people interviewing her were not as stylish as Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows or even the same species.

"We need information on the whereabouts of the Time Lord known as the Doctor," The Judoon on the right said.

Bella didn't answer, thinking silence might be the best option. She couldn't incriminate the Doctor or endanger herself that way.

"Answer the question!" The Judoon ordered, slamming his fist down on the table.

Surprisingly, Bella didn't flinch, but she decided that her safety may be in danger if she didn't talk, so she went with telling them the truth – or what she knew at least. "I don't know where he is."

"You must," The Judoon on the left said. "You are his new companion!"

_His new companion,_ Bella asked herself. _What the hell is that supposed to mean?_ "Look, I am telling you the truth," Bella said. "I don't know where he is. I've only met him once -"

"Protecting him are you?" Said the Judoon on the right jeeringly.

Bella's heartbeat quickened._ They caught on fast_. "I don't even know him that well, so why would I protect him?"

"Then why has your heart rate increased?" The Judoon on the left asked smiling.

_Crap._

"Maybe it's the fact that you have abducted me and you are talking rhino's, for God's sake!" she said seriously. "Why do you even want to know about him anyway?" Bella added angrily.

"The one we work for wants him out of the way." The Judoon on the right sneered.

Bella gasped. "You are going to kill him? What did he do to you?"

"He interfered…" The Judoon said together, both standing up and looking at Bella, both of them now sensing her fear.

The two large Judoon threw Bella back into the cell, where she landed painfully on the metal ground. The cell door closed and locked as the two Judoon laughed to themselves and walked away.

Bella sat up, rubbing her head and examining herself. _No blood_, she observed, _always a good sign_. There were a few bruises here and there but nothing that wouldn't be gone in a few hours. She had always been a very fast healer.

She sighed, wondering why the Judoon didn't believe her about the Doctor. How was she supposed to know where he was, she hadn't seen him in three whole weeks. He could have been on the other side of the universe for all she knew, but she gathered that the rampaging skeleton of a tyrannosaurus rex down in Cardiff may have had something to do with him. She hadn't told the Judoon that though. That was the last thing Earth needed; another alien invasion.

She felt proud of herself for not giving anything away, not that she had much to give away in the first place, but she didn't succumb to the easy – and much less painless – option. If they wanted to kill an innocent man – well, it wouldn't be because of her. _But who is he really?_ Her thoughts nagged at her.

"Doctor-bloody-who?" she sighed before almost screaming out loud in fright. The red metal thing had moved toward her, the eyepiece glowing blue.

She stared at the strange object beside her and she got the feeling it was staring back. "Are you alive?" She asked quietly, curiosity getting the better of her.

It said nothing, but the large head part swivelled around to look out the cell door.

After glancing out of the cell, Bella moved toward it slightly. "It's okay, there's no one out there."

It still didn't say anything.

"I don't suppose you know the Doctor by any chance, do you?"

"I know of him," It said in a mechanical voice, the lights on its head lighting up when it spoke.

Bella suddenly felt a rush of excitement, forgetting that this thing could possibly kill her in an instant. "Is that why you're here?" She asked eagerly. "Because you know of him or because you invaded Earth a few months ago?"

"Because I know of him," it answered her. "I did not invade your planet."

"This lot _must_ be desperate if they've only just got us!" Bella laughed. "How do you know him?"

The creature seemed to hesitate. "He is the greatest enemy of the Daleks, of my kind."

Bella's eyes widened slightly at this news, but he confirmed that he was in fact just like the things that invaded Earth. It made her nervous to know this, but she was so hungry for information that she continued questioning him.

"Why?" She whispered, not knowing if she wanted to hear the answer or not.

"He destroyed my kind in the Time War," the Dalek said emotionlessly. "I am the only one left."

Bella gaped at the Dalek. She couldn't believe that the Doctor she knew would have done something like that. He was too kind, too caring, and too _trustworthy_. There was no possible way he could have committed an act like genocide, or could he? She had only met him once and spent only a few hours with him. It wasn't as though he had told her anything about himself other than that he wasn't from earth, so it could be quite possible that he was a sick, inhumane person that killed an entire race.

But she had trusted him when her life had been in the most danger it had ever been and he had done everything he could to save her. He had even shown reluctance to use the vinegar that could be used to destroy the Slitheen; he said it was only a last resort. How could this be the same person? She stood up and moved backwards away from the Dalek until she hit the metal bars of the cell door.

"Do not judge him," the Dalek said, its eyepiece directed at her. Now that Bella was standing she noticed how tall the Dalek was taller than she was. "He has paid for what he did and it was worse than his own death. Still he suffers and will until his own end. I only wish that I had of been there to help him destroy the Daleks."

"Help him destroy your own kind?" Bella asked confused. "Why?"

"They were trying to destroy all things, create the perfect Dalek Empire throughout all time and space?"

"And you disagreed with that?"

"It would have been the end of all things in the universe,"

Bella frowned. "Was it only you, or did other Daleks agree with you too?"

"It was only me," the Dalek said. "And I was banished, never to be seen again until I was captured by the inferior species."

There was a sudden growl behind Bella and she turned, gasping. A very angry Judoon had obviously been listening from beside the cell.

"Why haven't you told us this before?" He yelled.

"The Daleks do not answer to renegade scum!" The Dalek said, his voice louder than it had been before and it moved as though it was shaking with anger.

"Why _should_ he of told you that before?" Bella asked hotly. "The way you treated me to get information – well, I would hate to think what you have done to him!"

The Judoon pulled out what looked like some kind of gun and pointed it directly at Bella, who gasped and moved backward. Just as he pulled the trigger, the Dalek moved forward and took the hit, which did nothing to the Dalek whatsoever. He shot from the whisk-shaped arm a bright red laser and it hit the Judoon. For a fleeting moment the Judoon's body looked like it had been x-rayed before he fell down dead.

"Oh my God," Bella gasped, moving forward slightly and looking through the rails to the dead Judoon lying on the hard floor. "He's dead, you killed –"She paused, turning towards the Dalek. "You just saved my life…"

The Dalek remained silent, watching her.

"Thank you," She said sincerely, but still the Dalek said nothing. "Right, well," she continued, thinking the Dalek didn't know how to take accept a thanks. "It doesn't really look like your laser thing works on the metal bars, so I am going to have to try to get the keys out of this – uh – dead Judoon here, then we can somehow get out of this together… Maybe we can find an escape pod or something… I mean, we could do with the Doctor's help on this one and I'd love to see him again, but I haven't got a clue how to get in contact with him."

The Dalek watched her in silence as she laid belly first on the floor, reaching through the bars trying to get the keys, her tongue poked out in concentration. He had never seen or experienced kindness like hers, towards him or others (especially seeing as his kind had recently tried to invade her planet), so he decided he may as well try and help her back, by getting the thing she needed the most…


	8. Ep2 Hostage Situation CH3

"Where is she?" Jack asked curiously, leaning forward in the seat intrigued by the possibility of this knew woman.

"At her house I suppose… She couldn't come." He explained. "Had things to look after there, responsibilities and all that…" He paused deep in thought.

Jack got the impression that the Doctor was a bit disappointed that this new person didn't go with him and it was a side to him that Jack wasn't overly used to seeing.

"But I guess it's better like this," the Doctor continued moodily. "Don't want to make her life worse…"

Jack sighed inwardly. "Doctor, what happened to Donna wasn't your fault." He told him sternly.

The Doctor looked to him, as if challenging this statement and Jack was about to give him a long lecture about why he was right when a loud whooping noise sounded throughout the TARDIS noisily, the Doctor moving extremely quickly to the screen.

"What is it?" Jack asked standing up.

"A distress signal," The Doctor stated, reading the signals of the screen in Gallifreyean, putting on his brainy specs. "Not from earth," he added as Jack opened his mouth to ask. "It's coming from between the Earth and the sun! There!" he said loudly pointing to the screen. "There's a ship,"

"Are we going to go and help?" Jack asked.

"I've never seen anything like it before," The Doctor said to himself, running his hand quickly through his hair, which was a sign that he was perplexed. "The most distressed distress signal I've ever encountered and the TARDIS is the only one receiving it!"

Jack looked to the Doctor, feeling confused. "How does that even work?"

"Hold on, Jack, and we'll find out!" The Doctor said, pulling one of the many levers, the TARDIS giving a jerk and the Time Rotor rising and falling more rapidly than before.

Bella struggled against the clockwork droids tight grip as five new Judoon surrounded the Dalek and the one of the Judoon from earlier pointed a ray gun at Bella so the Dalek wouldn't shoot anyone else.

They had both been dragged out of their cell (_well_, Bella thought, _the Dalek was more pushed out than dragged_) and now stood on the opposite side of the room watching as the Judoon spoke in their native language and hovered over the dead Judoon that was still on the floor.

A loud, annoying beeping sound suddenly filled the control room and a Judoon standing up on the slight platform in the middle of the room, pushed a button and turned to a screen on the wall that Bella couldn't see from where she was held into place.

"Hello," said a new, yet so very familiar, voice. "Ah, Judoon, is everything alright? It's just; we have a very distressed distress signal that seems to be coming from your ship."

Bella didn't need to see the screen to know who that voice belonged to; it was the Doctor. "No," she gasped quietly, the Judoon up on the platform looked to her and smiled, which distorted the Judoon's face.

"We seem to be having some problems with our engines –"

Not quite sure how she managed it, she broke free from the two clockwork droids holding yelling "No, they're lying!"

The Doctor watched the single Judoon on the screen with some old clockwork droids behind him.

"We seem to be having some problems with our engines –"

The Judoon broke off as the sounds of a struggle off screen drew his attention.

"No, they're lying!" Yelled a voice the Doctor instantly recognised.

"You were supposed to keep her tied up!" The Judoon growled angrily, moving off the screen as the Doctor and Jack exchanged a quick glance.

There was a crashing sound, followed by someone saying "Get the hell off me!"

"I know that voice," the Doctor said panicking slightly. "But it can't be – She's on Earth – it's impossible -"

The Doctor stopped midsentence as Bella rushed onto screen, the eighteen year old girl whom he'd met just the other day, her hands bound and her face and arms covered in small, faint bruises.

"Bella!" The Doctor gasped.

"Doctor," Bella said oblivious to Jack beside him and the Clockwork droids walking in their robotic way behind her. "You have to get out of here! They are trying to lure you in – it's a trap!"

"Bella – what?" the Doctor said as Bella glanced to her left and back again. "I'm coming for you!" He declared.

"No you mustn't," Bella said firmly, looking at him as though his life depended on what she was telling him. "They want you, Doctor! I don't really understand why, but they way they've treated us to get information on you, it can't be –"

"LOOK OUT!" Yelled the Doctor and Jack as a furious looking Judoon grabbed her.

"Bella!" cried the Doctor as Bella began struggling futilely until one of the droids jabbed her in the neck with some kind of needle. She instantly stopped struggling and fell limp, hopefully just unconscious before the screen went black.

"No, Bella!" The Doctor yelled his voice full of anguish as he hit the now blank screen. He let out a roar of frustration. "I've done it again, ruined someone else's life!"

"Doctor, who was she?" Jack asked, watching the Doctor intensely.

"Her name is Bella," the Doctor said distractedly. "I asked her to travel with me… But I don't understand how they got her! The Judoon have no authority on Earth, which is why they took that hospital to the moon two years ago to get the plasmavore. The Shadow Proclamation would never allow this."

"But what do they want with her and what do they want with you?"

The Doctor paused then looked to Jack. "Maybe we should find out."

"Doctor, if what your friend is saying is true; this whole distress signal has been a trap."

"That signal isn't coming from the ship; it's coming from something _inside_ the ship." The Doctor said. "And I'm not about to leave Bella there. If she is being held against her will, which it looked like she was, you can guarantee that the Judoon won't be overly happy that she warned me and there is no way in this universe they are going to get the chance to hurt her!"

Jack smiled slightly as the Doctor strode around the TARDIS furiously. This Bella must have really made an impression on the Doctor. "You know Doctor, we've done a lot of thing, but I don't recall ever going to rescue a beautiful damsel in distress!"


	9. Ep2 Hostage Situation CH4

Hostage Situation CH4

"Doctor," Bella groaned sitting up. It was pitch-black and she was alone, the Dalek wasn't in the cell with her. Standing up, she felt her way to the cell door. Whatever the Clockwork droids had injected into her must have been some kind of tranquiliser that had knocked her out completely. "Dalek," she whispered hoarsely. "Are you there?"

"Yes," said the Dalek, the lights on its head lighting up when it spoke.

Bella sighed in relief. The Dalek was just on the other side of the room in a cell of his own. "Did they hurt you?"

"Negative,"

"I'm sorry if I have caused you trouble," Bella said quietly. "I just needed the Doctor to stay away…" she told him.

"Apology not necessary," the Dalek said.

Bella smiled slightly and sat down on the bed, rubbing her neck where the droid had injected the tranquilizer that had apparently knocked her out. She felt her jeans pockets and realised that as well as her phone, she still had her green IPod mini.

She slid the phone open and saw a picture of her and her best friend Sally as the background. It was 11.30pm back on Earth and there was no reception. _Always the way_, the smirked. She pressed the play button on her IPod and found that it worked, so she put the earphones in her ears and smiled slightly. At least she had _Muse – Feeling Good _to keep her company.

The Doctor landed the TARDIS, the Time Rotor coming to a halt and the ear shattering noise of the Klaxon stopping. Everything was silent and still. The two of them exchanged a quick glance before the Doctor strode quickly over to his overcoat that was hanging over one of the arches and put it on before reaching the doors, which he opened slowly and hesitantly to look out.

"Anything?" asked Jack quietly, moving to the Doctor's side.

"C'mon," he answered before walking out the door.

"That didn't answer my question," Jack sighed before following him out.

Luckily, as Jack quickly found out, there was nothing out there waiting for them, just a dark and empty metal room. The Doctor had already started moving to the room's heavy door and slid it open. He peered out before motioning Jack to follow him out into a metal corridor.

He looked around as the lights flickered about his head and found the whole corridor very familiar. It, just like the corridor under Bella's house, had a very Cybermenish feel to it.

He began to walk to his left up the corridor, telling Jack to keep a look out for trip-systems, not noticing the red light on the wall to his left begin to flash as he walked past it.

Bella awoke abruptly realising she had fallen asleep. It was now 01.09am by her phone and something outside her cell moved. She quickly shoved her phone and Ipod into her pockets and stood up. There was a blue light and a buzzing noise and her cell door clicked open.

"Who's there?" She ordered.

"Bella?" said a voice she recognised.

"Doctor?" she gasped as he turned on his sonic screwdriver and used it as a torch. "Doctor!" she grinned, moving forward and hugging him tightly, the Doctor doing exactly the same. They broke apart after a moment and looked at each other.

"I told you not to come," she said reproachfully, still grinning. "They are after you for some reason. Something about interfering with someone the Judoon-things work for."

"Yeah, well we couldn't just leave you here, could we?" The Doctor said, still grinning too.

"Yes, and you should of – who's we?" Bella asked, wondering if he had found someone else to travel with. Maybe someone intelligent and attractive – for some reason this made her feel slightly jealous.

From behind the Doctor a tall, very good-looking man with blue eyes and short, neat, brown hair moved forward. He looked to Bella smiling and held out his hand.

"Captain Jack Harkness," he said in a strong American accent as he kissed her on her hand.

"Don't," the Doctor said wearily.

"What?" Jack asked looking to him.

"I don't mind," Bella said smiling.

Jack grinned smugly at the Doctor who shook his head. "Come on, we need to get out of here. I don't particularly feel like being captured and taken to the Shadow Proclamation."

"Wait," Bella gasped. "My friend – he's locked up too, can you help him out?"

The Doctor nodded, an odd feeling rising in his stomach; jealousy. He wasn't even sure why he was feeling jealous. He followed her to the other side of the room to another dark cell, which they all heard movement in.

"It's alright, it's just me." Bella whispered through the bars. "We're going to get you out."

Somewhat grudgingly, the Doctor Soniced the lock and the door opened. Bella rushed in and the Doctor lifted the sonic screwdriver like a torch, the light passing over Bella's new _'friend'_.

The Doctor quickly grabbed Bella and pulled her behind him where Jack took hold of her, glaring furiously at him.

"What are you doing?" Bella gasped.

"How did you survive?" The Doctor ordered, his voice filled with anger, hatred and a little fear.

"I was not in the Time War, Doctor," The Dalek said looking at him.

"I'm not talking about the Time War, I'm talking about – What do you mean you weren't in the Time War?" The Doctor said suddenly, realising what the Dalek had just said. "You had to be!"

"I had been banished just after the war began."

"Liar," the Doctor accused.

"Doctor, listen to him!" Bella said, managing to grab hold of the Doctor as Jack's hold on her tightened. "Just hear him out –"

"You don't know anything about him!" The Doctor said furiously and Bella's hand dropped from his arm, her eyes widening in alarm at the tone of his voice. "You know _nothing_ about him!"

"I know what you did," she said quietly, looking directly into his eyes. "You killed his entire race, the least you could do would to be to listen to him!"

A cold wave of fury washed over him as he turned back to the Dalek. "Is that how you got her to trust you? Told her half the story so she would believe you? Maybe you should have told her about the others who died –"

"I tried to stop them, Doctor." The Dalek said, causing the Doctor to freeze in shock. "I tried to stop what the Emperor was planning, the war with the Time Lords, but I could not succeed. The Emperor sent me himself to the Cult of Scaro with the promise of resolution, but it was a trick."

"You know, I am beginning to get that very same feeling." Jack said glaring at the Dalek, still holding Bella tightly.

"The Emperor sent me to Dalek Sec to dispose of me," The Dalek continued. "I was not pure; a mistake must have been made while my genes were being coded. I did not think like the other daleks, I could not. So much death and destruction, I never wanted to be a part of it.

"I was sent away by the Cult of Scaro, banished for all eternity on a lone planet at the edge of the universe with very little inhabitance. Word reached me eventually on what had happened in the Time War, and what you had to sacrifice; the Time Lords are a mighty race –"

"Were," the Doctor said quietly, "Were a mighty race."

The Dalek was silent for a moment. "I was going to fight with the Time Lords, with you against my own kind –"

"I don't believe you," Jack said. "All the Daleks are the same!"

"Jack, he couldn't make this up," the Doctor said eventually taking even himself by surprise. "A Dalek doesn't have an imagination – even a mutated one, and a story like this would have taken a lot of imagining. The way he talks… We don't have time now; we'll talk about it when we get into the TARDIS." He said, before adding to the Dalek, "But that doesn't mean I trust you!" He turned and led the way out of the dark cell, the others following him. He was feeling very shocked. He had never expected to find a Dalek after what his human self had done, but he had to remind himself that the Daleks always seemed to survive, no matter what they went through.

They were half way across the room when the lights went on and the Judoon and clockwork droids entered from every possible exit point, sealing them in. They all froze as the Judoon raised their guns.


	10. Ep2 Hostage Situation CH5

Hostage Situation CH5

"Hello Doctor," said the main Judoon who was in charge as he approached them holding his big gun in front of him and looking directly at the Doctor. "We had hoped you would try and rescue your companion."

The Doctor looked to Bella on his right, who shrugged.

"Don't look at me," She said, her hands raised. "They came out with it. I tried telling them all I knew about you was that you were tall, pretty skinny and had really good hair!"

Jack sniggered as the Doctor smiled slightly.

"It didn't go down all that well, actually." She said, flinching slightly.

"So why is it that you want me so bad?" The Doctor said, trying not to think about what Bella had just said, because that meant that the Judoon had hurt her to get information on him. "This hasn't got anything to do with not fighting for the Shadow Proclamation when the Daleks stole all the planets does it? 'Cause I don't _fight_ in wars. But hang on –"he said looking around at all the Judoon and taking in their appearances. "This isn't the right kind of ship for normal police Judoon or the right uniforms – If you could call those uniforms. And that distress signal wasn't very Shadow Proclamation-ish, was it?"

"Doctor," Bella whispered. "Please don't antagonize them, they want you dead!"

The Doctor looked round to her. "What?"

Bella opened her mouth to answer him, but the Judoon cut her off.

"That distress signal did not come from us, although we appreciate the confusion." He said. "And we do not work for the Shadow Proclamation."

The Doctor looked to the Dalek beside Bella, and he suddenly understood. "Did you share a cell with your _friend_?" He asked Bella in a whisper. She looked up to him and nodded.

"Did you ever stand up for him or try to protect him?"

Confused, she nodded. "Why?"

"Enough whispering!" the Judoon ordered. "It is time, Doctor, for you to be dealt with as our master wishes!" He lifted his gun and fired a blue coloured laser toward the Doctor, but Jack ran in front of him taking the shot. Jack gave a cry and fell to the floor motionless.

Bella cried out and knelt down, feeling for a pulse on his neck, but there wasn't one.

"You killed him!" She said furiously looking up and glaring at the Judoon.

The Doctor reached out and placed his hand under her left arm and pulling her up gently before taking her hand and pulling her back to him. "He'll be alright," he whispered in her ear. She looked up to him with an incredulous look on her face.

"Trust me,"

Suddenly Jack gave a loud and pain-filled gasp and sat up breathing heavily as Bella's mouth fell open, "Oh my God,"

All the Judoon growled angrily and raised their weapons.

"Judoon at the ready –"

A red laser beam suddenly shot the commanding Judoon coming from the Dalek and all hell seemed to break loose, the Judoon all aiming at the Dalek.

"Come on!" The Doctor yelled, letting go of Bella's hand and leaping forwards to Jack as the Dalek began shouting "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

Bella grabbed hold of Jack's right arm; helping the Doctor half carry Jack to the now unguarded door beside Bella's cell and into the corridor with the window overlooking earth.

"How come he's allowed to shoot things?" Jack grumbled between the Doctor and Bella.

"Because he isn't my responsibility _and_ he's a _Dalek_!" The Doctor answered him. "Bella why did they want me dead?" he asked her.

"I don't know, they never told me anything." Bella said hurriedly, trying to remember everything that she had seen and heard. "They just said you interfered with something... Uh, something about the person they worked for wanted you out of the way for interfering with something."

"Did they say who they were working for?"

"No, I don't think they did, at least, not in English." She said. "The Dalek said that the Judoon were renegade?"

"They are," The Doctor said. "They normally work for the Shadow Proclamation –"

"Which is…?"

"Sort of the outer space police force, but these ones seem to be privately hired or bred or both." He told her as they turned right down another corridor. "Almost there,"

He steered them into the fifth room along and as soon as they reached the blue police box, Bella let go of Jack and turned round to see that the Dalek was still shooting their captors as he entered the room backwards.

The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors for Jack then turned to get Bella who had moved to where the Dalek was blocking the door, still shooting at the Judoon and droids.

"Bella," he yelled over the noise of the blasts and explosions, running to her. "Come on, both of you – get into the TARDIS!"

Bella turned and started moving towards the police box but the Dalek didn't move and the Doctor knew in his mind that he wouldn't. It was a stupid pride thing.

"Doctor…" It said as it continued to shoot its laser beam.

"I'll look after her," he said quietly to the Dalek before running back to Bella who had stopped. "Come on," He said as he grabbed her.

"But what about –"

"He's saving our lives!"

Bella stopped. "What?" She turned and saw the Dalek shooting the remaining Judoon and droids, taking as many hits as he was dealing out, his protective shield fading more and more with each hit. "No…!"

The Doctor grabbed her and practically dragged her to the TARDIS, pushing the doors open with his own body, still holding onto Bella, who was putting up a pretty good fight to try and break free from his strong grip. They both fell into the TARDIS, falling to the floor painfully the Doctor not daring to let Bella go. He jumped up just as there was a large explosion and shut the doors. Bella jumped up too and rushed forward, the Doctor grabbing hold of her again.

"You can't just leave him out there!" She said desperately, still fighting with the Doctor to make him let her go.

"He chose to stay –"

"You don't care if he dies!" She accused furiously. "You don't trust him like I do!"

"Bella," the Doctor said quietly, still holding onto her tightly. "I trusted him the moment I worked out that it had been _him_ sending me the distress signal so I could come and rescue you. And I certainly care if he dies…"

She stopped struggling with him and just let him hold her as they listened as the battle continuing raging outside, finding comfort in the warmth of his arms.

After what seemed like forever, all the sounds outside the TARDIS stopped. No explosions, no "exterminates", no nothing.

The Doctor let Bella go and she quickly wrenched open the doors to find the scene of a massacre. The doorway was blocked off just ahead of them and there were the bodies of the Judoon and the droids all over the place. She suddenly saw a piece of red under a solid sheet of metal and ran to it, jumping over debris, the Doctor and Jack looking on solemnly.

The Doctor watched as she moved a large piece of metal and found the Dalek on its side, its eyepiece resting on the ground.

"Are you alright?" Bella asked the Dalek, kneeling beside it.

"I have been exterminated," It answered weakly and the Doctor and Jack exchanged a glance.

"No, no, you're alright," Bella said smiling weakly. "Here, let's get you upright…"

The Doctor moved to her and helped Bella lift the Dalek so it stood upright.

"See…"

"I am dying…"

"No… The Doctor's here, he can use his lasery-wandy-thing to put your circuits back together – you'll be right in no time…"

"Bella," the Doctor said quietly. "The circuits aren't the problem… He isn't a robot."

"Course he is, look at him, he looks just like Artoo-Detoo – all metal…"

"A Dalek is a living creature, Bella."

The Dalek gave a great shudder and then the chest opened revealing a little skin coloured, octopus-looking thing. Bella gasped and took a few steps backward, where Jack put his hand on her shoulder.

"This is what a Dalek truly is and _this_ is what is dying, Bella." The Doctor explained.

"But you can't die," she said, her voice shaking slightly. "I said we would escape together…"

"You are safe with the Doctor now, Bella," It told her. "Farewell,"

She stared at it momentarily, before Jack gently turned her around and led her to the TARDIS, Bella looking once more over her shoulder before she disappeared from view.

"Why did you help her?" The Doctor asked curiously.

"She showed me great kindness that I didn't believe existed in the universe. I wanted to thank her for that."

The Doctor stared at the Dalek before him for a moment, not expecting an answer like the one he'd been given. "I was going to ask you to come with me."

"The two greatest enemies of all of time and space in one small TARDIS?" the small, gooey creature smiled.

"The very last of their kinds," The Doctor added.

"I am sorry, Doctor, of what you had to do to stop the war.

"Yeah," the Doctor agreed. "So am I…"


	11. Ep2 Hostage Situation CH6

Hostage Situation CH6

Bella opened the TARDIS doors and gasped at the sight that greeted her home.

"What is it?" The Doctor asked still standing at the centre console.

"Did he bring you back to the wrong place?" Jack asked smiling. "Typical,"

Bella didn't reply to either of them. The Doctor watched her leave the TARDIS and he exchanged a glance with Jack before walking towards the doors, gasping too, with what greeted them.

Bella stood looking at the front of her house. It was covered with missing person flyers and reefs and candles. It looked like a shrine and it was all dedicated to her. She looked at it horrified as the Doctor stopped just behind her.

"How long have I been gone?" she whispered in shock.

"What day do you remember last?" Jack asked.

"Friday," she whispered. "It was Friday night when they came."

"It's been a week," Jack told her quietly.

The Doctor put his hand on her shoulder. "I am so sorry."

She continued to stare at her home in utter disbelief, the morning's sun casting ominous shadows. She realised that if it wasn't for the Doctor, she probably wouldn't have made it home.

"Bella," Jack said suddenly, holding a newspaper in his hands. "I think you should see this…"

She turned around took the newspaper off Jack and the Doctor watched her read, her face going pale and tears forming in her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

She bit her lip so she wouldn't utter a cry as she handed the Doctor the newspaper. His eyes instantly found a large picture of Bella and one of her friends and the headline that went with it:

EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD DECLARED DEAD

Eighteen year old, Bella Lumic was confirmed dead by Bath police this morning after the coroner concluded that with no body being found after six days he was fairly certain that they wouldn't find her alive.

"In abduction cases the first twenty-four hours are the most crucial," Said Chief Inspector Burke this morning. "Considering that it was discovered that the girl was missing after she failed to turn up to work on Sunday morning and she had already been missing since around 9 – 10 o clock on Friday night, the trail that the abductors had left would have disappeared thanks to the torrential downpour on that night."

Best friend to the recently declared dead, Sally Brenner insisted - (Continued page 4.)

The Doctor decided he didn't need to turn to page four. The Judoon had done a very good job at concealing the fact that they had kidnapped Bella, but the torrential rain was a bit of over kill. He looked up to see that Bella had turned away from both him and Jack.

"Bella?" he asked gently.

"What am I supposed to do now?" She asked with a surprisingly level voice. "This place was everything I had and now I'm declared dead!"

Her voice broke on the last word and the Doctor moved to her and pulled her into his arms.

"Do I go to the police?" She asked seriously, holding onto the Doctor, her head resting on his chest, hearing for the first time his odd heartbeat. "I mean, to prove I'm not dead?" She laughed slightly. "I would probably give them all heart attacks, the superstitious old fools…"

The Doctor smiled, still holding her. "My offer is still there, if you want," He said quietly.

"What offer?" she said, looking up to him.

"Come with me."

Bella let go of the Doctor and took a step back from him. Jack, who had missed most of that conversation due to how quiet they had been, looked on curiously.

"Travel with you? You – You would really want me to go with you?"

"Course," the Doctor smiled. "I wouldn't have asked otherwise. Twice, I might remind you."

Bella took a moment to contemplate this before her face broke into the same brilliant smile that he had left her with last time he saw her.

"You'll come?"

Her smile widened and she nodded. "You bet!"

The Doctor grinned happily and hugged Bella, lifting her up as Jack laughed.

"HEY!"

The Doctor put Bella down and they broke apart all of them looking over to the TARDIS. A young lady was standing beside the TARDIS glaring at them all furiously.

"What the hell are you doing bring this piece of _junk_ here? This is not, contrary to popular belief, a shrine!"

Bella gasped and Jack said "Ouch!" looking at the Doctor, who felt highly offended that his beloved spaceship was being called 'junk'.

"Sally," Bella said moving forward in front of the Doctor and Jack.

Sally froze, her face going white. "No, you can't be – you're dead!"

"Do I look dead to you, Sally?" Bella said shaking her head.

Sally took a moment to take in the fact that Bella was standing in front of her breathing. "But –"she started, before furiously advancing on Bella, who stood her ground. "You never go anywhere, even when those control freaks posing as your _caregivers_ finally left you!"

"Old habits die hard, I guess." Bella shrugged.

"Where were you?"

"You'll never believe me."

"I thought my best friend was dead," Sally said emotionally. "Try me."

Bella looked back to the Doctor before saying "I was kidnapped by – uh – things called Judoon."

"And what are they when they're at home?"

"They are kinda aliens…"

"Aliens? Come of it Bella." Sally said putting her hand to her forehead. "We've been through this before."

"Sal, there is life out there, I always said there was. I mean, remember the planets in the sky and the invading Daleks? how could there be an entire _universe_ and we're the only ones in it?"

Sally sighed. "Alright then, why did they _kidnap_ you?"

"For information on someone…"

"On who?" she asked sceptically.

"Just a guy I know…"

"Let me guess," Sally said rolling her eyes. "It was that bloke you met the other week; the tall, skinny, good looking one with great hair?"

Bella felt her face redden. "Yeah, him…"

"Do I really have great hair?" The Doctor asked looking to Jack.

"Defiantly," Jack agreed, grinning.

Sally looked at the Doctor. "I see what you mean, Bells!"

"Sally!" Bella groaned, her face deepening in colour as Jack laughed at her loudly and the Doctor smiled sheepishly.

"Hi, I'm the Doctor," he smiled walking forward to shake Sally's hand. "And this is Jack."

"Captain Jack Harkness, actually," Jack said, kissing her hand.

Sally smiled and turned back to Bella. "You didn't tell me about him! You have the tall one and I'll have the Captain!"

Bella's face deepened in colour even more than it already had as Jack laughed behind his hand. She grabbed Sally and pulled her away from a now howling Jack and a grinning Doctor.

"What?"

"Sally, you know it was never like that with the Doctor –"

"Bella, I've never seen you go so red!" Sally laughed. "Even when my brother snogged you!"

As Jack laughed even louder and even the Doctor gave a chuckle, Bella sighed. "That's because I am going to travel with them." Bella told her, dragging her a bit further away from the other two.

"Both of them?" she asked curiously.

"I dunno what Jack is going to do," Bella said shrugging. "I still don't really know how they know each other or who he even is, but I do know that he will never let me live that down…"

Sally smiled. "Forget about it, the Doctor will."

"He seems like the kind of person that _doesn't_ forget about things easily." Bella sighed. She hadn't even started travelling with him; she didn't want it to be awkward already and she didn't really know him well enough to have feelings for him yet. Mind you, saving her life twice defiantly earns extra brownie points.

"Where are you going to travel too?" Sally asked. "Italy, Australia?"

"He rescued me from a spaceship in outer space, Sally I don't really think Earth destinations are on the itinerary."

"Alright, alright," she said. "But you can't really come back can you?" Sally asked

"Course I can," Bella said. "Just tell the cops I rang you to tell you I was in Tuscany with old friends of the family."

"How will I contact you when you don't even know where you are going to be?"

"Well email is definitely out," Bella paused thinking. "I might be able to call you whenever we are on Earth, so just try my mobile and leave messages."

Sally nodded, smiling slightly "I'll miss you," she paused before adding cheekily "and so will my brother. He's not going to be happy that you've chosen an older man and it wasn't him!"

Bella grinned. "Shut up! I'll miss you too, but we will visit you so frequently that you'll hardly notice I'm gone! Oh, and look after the house, will you?

"Oh, sure thing, miss-I'm-going-to-travel-the-universe!" she said sarcastically.

Bella grinned at her. "I'll bring you a souvenir,"

"You'd better!" she laughed, hugging Bella before turning to walk away.

Bella watched her smiling until she walked out the front gate of her house. She turned back to the two men. "Don't say a word!" she said to Jack, making the Doctor laugh.

Jack grinned at her. "I'm not saying anything!"

Bella grinned and shook her head. "Can I pack a bag?"

"Course," the Doctor said. "Want any help?"

Bella shook her head. "I'll be quick!"

She ran as fast as she could upstairs and into her bedroom, where she pulled out a bright yellow bag and put it onto her bed. She opened her wardrobe and began throwing everything she had into the bag, not really knowing what she would need. She put on her black overcoat and her red tartan scarf before running into her father's bedroom and picked up one of the picture frames that had been face down on the mantel piece and looked at the picture it contained.

It was her as a baby in her mother's arms. It wasn't the best quality picture as her mother's face had become a blur, but she could still see her father, sitting beside her mother on the bed, just after she had been born. It was John Lumic.

The Doctor and Jack waited patiently in the TARDIS while Bella packed a bag. Jack was still laughing quietly to himself as Bella finally stepped through the doors smiling carrying her yellow bag.

"So," the Doctor said, clapping his hands together. "Where to?"

"Cardiff," Jack said as Bella dropped the bag by the railing and stood beside him.

"Cardiff?" the Doctor said, sounding disappointed. "Well, that's not really adventurous is it?" he added dully.

"I need to get back to Torchwood, Doctor." Jack said smiling.

"Oh,"

"What exactly is Torchwood?" Bella asked, looking to Jack. "And I think you need to explain to me how it is that you came back from the dead…"

"I can explain it on the way!" Jack laughed as the Doctor pulled a lever, the TARDIS making it's unique, eardrum splitting noise.


	12. Ep3 EggChange CH1

Ep3 CH1 Egg-change

Bella stood in the TARDIS watching the Doctor with her mobile phone and his sonic screwdriver, his face screwed up in concentration. They were currently located in Cardiff bay, having just dropped Captain Jack back to Torchwood, which he had explained rather basically to Bella, promising to go more in detail next time he saw her.

"There," the Doctor said proudly, handing the black mobile phone back to Bella. "You'll be able to ring anyone on Earth, no matter where - or when – you are."

"Really?" asked Bella, not sure whether or to believe him or not.

"Yep," the Doctor smiled. "So where to first?" he continued excitedly, "into the future or the past?"

She shrugged, grinning. "I dunno, maybe the past?"

"The past it is then!" The Doctor said grinning at her, as he pulled a lever and firing up the klaxon.

Bella held onto the control panel beside the Doctor, grinning in anticipation. She couldn't quite get her head around the fact that they were actually going back in time. The TARDIS gave a shudder and the ear-shattering noise stopped. They had made it.

"After you," the Doctor said, looking down to Bella, who grinned and walked to the TARDIS doors, feeling the Doctor behind her. She stopped just as she reached the doors and looked round to him, who was putting on his long light brown overcoat.

"When are we?"

"From my well educated guess," the Doctor said," I would say nineteen-fifties perhaps."

Bella smiled excitedly. "The rock and roll era, excellent, so where are we?"

"Somewhere in the United Kingdom," The Doctor told her.

"So you don't know exactly where we are?"

"Now where is the fun in that?" he her asked smiling.

A brilliant smile formed on Bella's face. "I can't believe it," she exclaimed, turning back to the door. "This is so exciting!"

The Doctor laughed at Bella as she opened the doors and stepped into the bright sunlight. She looked around, taking in all the surroundings. The TARDIS had landed on a grassy plain that were surrounded by snow-capped mountains. There was a herd of white sheep with black faces and legs munching on the green grass and wind lightly bit at their faces. The Doctor and Bella looked to each other.

"Scotland," they said at the same time, laughing.

Bella's phone suddenly rang and she got it out of her pocket, grinning at the Doctor before answering. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's just me," said Sally Brenner into the phone. "I told the police you were off travelling instead of dead."

"Sally," Bella exclaimed, not quite believing that the phone actually worked. She was receiving a phone call from at least sixty years in the future. She put the phone on speaker, so the Doctor could listen too. "What did they say?"

"Oh, they asked me why I reported you missing the old coots!" Sally said stiffly and the Doctor and Bella grinned at each other. "How was I to know that your distant friends of the family would come and visit you and take you on a trip of a lifetime? This does mean that you'll need to keep sending me postcards. One from Vienna is just not enough!"

"What?" Bella said feeling confused.

"I got a postcard from you when I got home from seeing you. It was waiting for me on my bed."

"Really?" she asked frowning and looking to the Doctor.

"Ah, not everything happens in order when you travel with me," he whispered making her smile slightly.

"So where are you then?" Sally asked with excitement in her voice. "Are you on the other side of the universe? What about on Mars visiting the Martians? Is that where he's from, your Doctor?"

"I'm not from Mars," the Doctor said into the phone as Bella laughed before he turned around to face away from her. "Why does everyone assume that I'm from Mars?"

Bella laughed again. "We're in Scotland actually, we just arrived."

"Scotland?" Sally repeated. "I thought you were going to travel?"

"We are," Bella said rolling her eyes.

"No wonder I could call you," she muttered.

"I'll call you later, alright?" Bella said before hanging up on her best friend.

"Sorry if she offended you." She said to the Doctor.

"It happens regularly." He told her. "Come on, let's go and see what's happening around these parts," the Doctor said, offering Bella his arm and they began heading towards the end of the valley, where a small castle could be seen.

"The last time I was in Scotland, Rose and I stumbled across Queen Victoria and these monks who had this werewolf –"The Doctor stopped midsentence and looked to Bella, wondering what her reaction to finding out that she wasn't his first companion would be.

"A real werewolf," asked Bella looking up to him wide-eyed and amazed.

The Doctor felt relieved. _Not another Martha Jones thankfully_, he thought ruefully. "And I am pretty sure that her encounter with the werewolf was the reasoning behind the appearance of haemophilia in the Royal Bloodline." He continued eagerly.

"No way," Bella laughed. "So they are all a bunch of werewolves?"

"Maybe," the Doctor shrugged, smiling as Bella laughed.

The followed the path they were on until they came to the gates of the old stone manor that faced towards a large lake. The roof was a deep grey and the stone was light in colour. It was a three story dwelling, with smaller houses away from the main house that probably housed the workers. There were maids were working in the vegetable gardens close to the back of the house and there were men herding sheep into smaller yards in the paddocks near them.

Bella looked up to the Doctor wondering if he had noticed the inconsistency with the clothes that everyone was wearing and the time frame he had estimated.

"Um, Doctor," she said as he looked down to her. "I have the slightest inkling that we might not be in the fifties…"

The Doctor looked around at all the people who were working ahead of them. "I think you might be right…"

Walking past all the maids towards the front of the house, they noticed an important looking man dressed in cream pants, a dark blue tailcoat and a black top hat heading towards them looking genuinely startled.

"Good God, have you two been robed?" He asked, rushing towards them frowning, his red hair poking out from under his hat.

The Doctor exchanged a glance with Bella, who looked as bewildered as he felt. "Robbed?" he repeated.

"They have stolen the young lady's clothes!" the man cried, looking at the two of them as though they were a little slow. "She is practically naked!"

Bella looked down at herself. She had a white t-shirt on, grey shorts that came to her knees and her black Converse All Stars on her feet. Bitting her lip, she looked up to the Doctor.


	13. Ep3 EggChange CH2

Ep3CH2 Egg-Change

"Right," the Doctor said slowly looking at Bella.

"Father," said a young woman, coming towards them from out of the house, who wore a magnificent gown that seemed to be influenced by French attire. She was very fair with light blonde hair and deep blue eyes. She was fairly tall, much taller than Bella, at least, which she must have inherited from her father, who would have been at least six foot one. "What's going on?"

"These people have been robbed!" the man exclaimed rubbing his well fed belly.

"Oh, I can see that, father; the girl has been stripped to her underclothes!"

_Girl_, Bella thought indignantly. She would have had to of been older than her, despite her height.

"What else has been stolen from you?" The man asked quickly.

"Uh –"the Doctor stammered, "Everything?"

The man gasped dramatically. "This is absolutely terrible! What is your name good sir?"

"I'm the Doctor and this is Bella," the Doctor said, seeing Bella look at him. "Now, uh, forgive me, but where are we?"

"You are in **Dunbartonshire**, sir Doctor." The man said.

"So we are in Scotland," the Doctor said very quietly to Bella who nodded once. "Only about two miles out from Glasgow, I think."

"I am Lord MacGregor and this is my eldest daughter, Beatrice." MacGregor said, indicating the girl who was standing beside her father.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," the Doctor smiled as he and Bella bowed slightly.

MacGregor nodded. "How about you come inside and rest for a time, at least until you get back onto your feet, you must be exhausted."

The Doctor looked to Bella who smiled excitedly. "That would be very gracious of you, Lord MacGregor."

He grinned at Bella as they both followed MacGregor and his daughter into a large entrance hall that was very British. A woman, who would have been in her early thirties stepped out of a room to the right of them, followed by two younger children.

"Darling," said the lady as she took in the Doctor and Bella's strange appearances.

"Sir Doctor, Lady Bella," MacGregor announced, "This is my wife Margarite and my daughters, Evette and Sally, the youngest."

They all bowed their heads slightly and the Doctor and Bella returned the gesture.

"Pardon my nakedness, my lady." Bella said the corners of her mouth twitching and even the Doctor found it difficult to keep a straight face.

"Sir Doctor and Lady Bella will be staying with us for a few days," MacGregor explained to his wife. "Some fiends stole everything they own. Girls, will you please find something that will fit Lady Bella."

"Of course, father," Beatrice said, moving to the stairs. "Come with us, Lady Bella."

Looking uncomfortable, Bella followed silently, giving the Doctor a look of despair. The Doctor smiled slightly, thinking she didn't look too pleased with the idea.

"Margarite, will you please inform the servants that we have guest, please." MacGregor continued. "They will need to prepare two rooms. Now Sir Doctor," He said looking back to him. "What do you say to a nice drink? You must be parched!"

"That would be great!" The Doctor said happily, following the red-haired balding man into the room to their left, taking in all its splendour.

There was a roaring fire and a big, black grand piano beside it. There were four big, soft red chairs placed around the fire and piano and on the opposite side of the room was what looked like a small bar, from which MacGregor poured them both what looked (and smelt) like scotch. There were bookcases filled with books and expensive looking decorations.

"This is a brilliant place you've got here," The Doctor said looking around.

"Yes it is," MacGregor agreed, handing him the glass. "It has been handed down through my family for many generations."

"You don't sound like a northerner." The Doctor observed.

"Well, no," MacGregor admitted. "My family is from London, originally, but this house has always been in our family. It is our winter home. But what about you, Doctor? You don't sound like you are from around here either, nor does Lady Bella."

"No, we aren't from around here. I am a long way from home and Bella lives down near Bath."

"What brings you all the way up here then?"

"Oh, we were just on our way to visit relatives in Edinburgh, via Glasgow." The Doctor said vaguely.

"And yet, sadly, you haven't made it to your chosen destination and everything was stolen." MacGregor shook his head. "These times, I tell you! Robbing a lady of her clothes – Ah, Lady Bella, I was just saying how awful it is that someone would take your clothes, but at least now you look much more comfortable."

The Doctor turned to find Bella approaching them in a floor length maroon dress that had black embroidery all over it and it gathered at the back like any nineteen hundreds dress would have done. Basically it covered every inch of her skin bar her face and hands. MacGregor's three daughters followed her in and stood by the piano. The Doctor grinned at Bella's shocked expression and he thought that she was having a slightly difficult time adjusting to the corset she was wearing under the dress. He couldn't deny that she looked absolutely stunning in it though.

"Yes, much more comfortable, thank you." she managed to say and the Doctor suppressed a laugh as she stopped beside him.

"You honestly don't know how uncomfortable this corset is," she whispered to him. "I can hardly breathe!"

"I've had my fair share of corsets, thank you very much!" he whispered back. She looked up to him.

"Don't ask," he advised her, smiling as he shook his head.

"Don't think I want too!" She laughed smiling at him.

At MacGregor's instruction, they both sat in a double-seater armchair and when Margarite re-entered they were served tea and the Doctor made a mental note to watch Bella in case she stopped breathing. He leant back in the chair comfortably while Bella sat on the edge of the seat sitting up unnaturally.

"So, Sir Doctor and Lady Bella," Margarite said looking at Bella with her eyes narrowed, as if she didn't trust her. "Are you married?"

Both the Doctor and Bella choked slightly on their tea that they had been sipping and quickly they both spoke at the same time.

"No," the Doctor said.

"Yes," Bella stated.

They both looked at each other feeling slightly panicky.

"Yes," the Doctor said hastily as Bella said "No,"

The Doctor frowned at her and Bella (going red in the face) turned back to Margarite. "We are newly married, my lady," she said quickly. "Sometimes we forget still…"

"Yes," the Doctor stated. "It's still so new to us."

Bella bit her lip nervously as she picked up on the Doctor's sarcasm.

"That is very sweet," Margarite said smiling slightly.

There was a slightly awkward silence as Bella sipped her tea, her cheeks reddening. Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor noticed the three young girls all whispering and smiling at them. _Great_, he said to himself,_ this was going to get awkward_.

"Right then," MacGregor said, breaking the agonising silence. "Shall we go for a leisurely stroll on the grounds, ladies?" He asked his family. "Of course, you and your wife are more than welcome to join us, Sir Doctor."

The Doctor rose out of the chair and extended his arm for Bella, who would have undoubtedly had trouble getting up. She took his hand and stood up as the others walked out the double doors onto a stone balcony.

"Newlyweds?" the Doctor whispered to her.

Bella felt her cheeks redden more than they already had. "It is somewhat unacceptable for a woman to travel alone with a man, who is of no relation to him at all, unless they are married in these times. We would have been thrown out faces first into the mud!"

The Doctor smiled. "You know history," he said, holding out his arm. She glanced at it before wrapping her own around his and they began to move towards the balcony.

"It's much easier to immerse yourself in someone else's history than your own, _Sir Doctor_." Bella smiled, lifting the front of her new dress carefully as the descended the five stone steps leading onto the green grass.

"The Eighteen hundreds suit you." The Doctor said smiling.

"Eighteen-thirty-one to be precise," Bella told him. "I asked the girls as they were extracting the oxygen from my lungs earlier."

He laughed at her as she sighed.

"I'm much more of a jeans and t-shirt girl."

They walked together until they reached the others who had stopped by the edge of the lake, where the Doctor was forced into a conversation with MacGregor which consisted of hunting mostly and a little bit of how wealthy he was. The Doctor found this quite dull and found himself looking and concentrating on things elsewhere. Mainly this was to watch Bella at the lake's edge, who was with the three young girls. They had apparently found some frogs.

"So, Doctor, do you hunt?" MacGregor asked him.

"No," the Doctor said simply.

"Why not?" he asked genuinely shocked, and even his wife looked at him with her eyebrows raised.

"It's cruel and unnecessary," the Doctor answered. "And I've never been able to see the point of it either. I mean, what have the poor things ever done to you lot, apart from eating your sheep if we are talking about foxes, but that still doesn't mean you should get twenty of the most wealthy and good shooters together and hunt the poor things. I have a better use of horses; just go for a leisurely ride with your family. Trust me the girls would love it."

"You seem to be the first man I've ever met, Sir Doctor that has shared my views on hunting." Margarite said, smiling at the Doctor from beside her husband. "It is not something I wish for my girls to be exposed to." She added.

"Quite right too!" the Doctor agreed wholeheartedly.

Bella smiled as she turned from the Doctor's conversation about hunting back to the three girls who were squealing at the small green frogs.

"They are disgusting!" Evette said, grinning.

"No they aren't," Bella smiled, kneeling down and picking one up. "They are very adorable!"

"I cannot believe you just did that!" Beatrice said, looking disgusted.

"Can I hold it?" Sally asked enthusiastically, holding out her hands.

Bella put the little green frog on the littlest girl's hands, who immediately started giggling. Bella laughed.

"It's stuck on me," Sally giggled. "And it feels odd!"

"Let me have a go, sister," Evette said moving in between Bella and Sally.

"What is that?" Beatrice suddenly said.

"What is what?" Bella asked, looking up to her, before following her gaze over the lake.

"It's just a big bird, sister." Evette said, watching the frog jumping on Sally's shoulder impatiently.

"It's much too big to be a normal bird, Evette!" Beatrice snapped, getting the Doctor's attention (which wasn't an overly difficult task giving what topic the conversation was still on.). He looked up and saw the extraordinarily sized bird and moved towards the girls.

"It's as big as a plane!" Bella gasped.

"A what," MacGregor asked looking intently at Bella.

"It's a type of bird from my home country." The Doctor said dismissively as Bella bit her lip again before whispering "sorry" to him.

The big, gigantic green bird was almost above them when the Doctor realised what the 'bird' actually was and by that time it was too late to do anything. It dived out of the sky and hurtled towards them.

"RUN!" the Doctor yelled, everyone doing so apart from Evette and Sally.

"Come on, Evette!" Bella said, pushing the girl towards the Doctor who grabbed her and began moving her away from the lake's edge. Bella quickly moved to Sally and took hold of the little girl's hand.

Once the Doctor had reached the stone balcony and Evette had run to her mother, he turned and felt his stomach drop. "Bella!" he yelled as the giant hawk-like-bird grabbed both Bella and Sally with both its golden claws and began flying upwards. As he moved forward he got his sonic screwdriver out from his jacket pocket and pointed it towards the bird's legs. It screeched in pain before it dropped both Bella and Sally into the middle of the lake.

"BELLA!" he yelled, running as fast as he could back to the lake's edge.

Bella surfaced immediately, gasping for breath. She saw the Doctor running into the water, already in up to his knees. Behind him was MacGregor running towards them, shouting.

"Sally!" he yelled. "She can't swim!"

Bella groaned. "Neither can I in this bloody corset," she said angrily, before looking around for the young girl, who she found a few meters away from her thrashing around wildly.

The Doctor watched helplessly as Bella swam towards Sally, who had just sunk beneath the water. Bella dived down after her deeper into the freezing water and the Doctor gripped his hair with both hands until both Sally and Bella's heads broke the surface again, but he didn't feel relieved as he saw that Bella was struggling to keep herself and Sally above the water. He walked in to the water further until the water came up to his waist where he reached out and grabbed Sally and walked her to where she could stand. As she walked out of the water to her father, the Doctor turned and rushed back into the water to Bella, who, because the weight of her dress, was finding it difficult to stand up.

She grabbed hold of his outstretched arms and he pulled her up onto her feet, gripping her tightly as she shivered.

"I guess it's always like this with you!" she panted, smiling slightly at him.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded, trying to get her breath back. "What was that?" She panted as they both looked to the giant bird that was flying away.

"It was a Mammonteal," the Doctor told her quietly, "It's a hunting bird from the planet Mammenth."

"It sounds like some kind of Pokémon." Bella said lightly.

"It doesn't belong here." The Doctor said. "C'mon,"

He took her hand to give her balance as they made their way out of the water slowly, Sally rushing to the water's edge. She threw her arms around Bella, who let go of the Doctor's hand to pat her on the back with both of her freezing cold hands.

"You saved my life, Lady Bella!" Sally cried.

"I wasn't going to leave you behind, Sally." Bella said truthfully.

The Doctor smiled, he had chosen his new companion well, he thought, even though he didn't _choose_ her exactly. He was just glad she had come with him in the end even if she didn't really have much choice. He shook his head, trying not to think too much about that last thought.

"We are very grateful to you, Lady Bella." Margarite said emotionally. "We are in your debt."

Bella smiled modestly and let go of Sally, not sure of what else to do.

"I think I should've sent for my musket when I have the chance," MacGregor said. "It would have been a good prize. Beatrice, Evette, take your sister and Lady Bella up stairs and get the maids to clean them up. Margarite, please show Sir Doctor his room so he can clean himself up. I think I need a very strong drink."


	14. Ep3 EggChange CH3

Ep3 Egg Change CH3

Bella examined herself in the mirror and scrunched up her face. Another lavish gown, she sighed. This one was far more detailed and fancier than the last. It had pale gold embroidery with black also. It had three-quarter sleeves and it puffed out just above the hips. It was clearly a dress that the wearer would choose to show off wealth.

Sighing, she decided to go and find the Doctor so she walked to the door and opened it and almost ran into a deathly pale woman, who was about two inches taller than Bella. She was dressed in grey tight-like pants and a green flowing shirt. Her hair was a golden blonde and her eyes were so blue they were almost grey. The young women looked slightly out of place and Bella thought it was like this girl was from a completely different time period. The youthful woman's pale eyes stared unblinkingly at her.

"Bella Lumic," the woman stated quietly.

Bella gasped. She had told no one her full name since being here. "How do you know me?"

"It does not matter how I know you," she said her voice so full of pain. "You just need to take heed of my words. You are in grave danger from he who is your blood, your family, he who has defied you!"

"Defied me? Bella repeated, feeling very confused, "I haven't got any family, "

"You cannot escape him and his fury towards the one who has interfered!" She continued. "He is looking for you, searching, always searching –"

"Bella?" the Doctor said, opening his bedroom door that was down the hall slightly and began to walk towards them smiling. He was now wearing black pants, a black tailcoat with a white shirt and a rather glorious top hat.

The girl suddenly grabbed Bella's arm and her touch was deathly cold. "You must run! Flee from him! He cannot save you!"

And with that dire warning, she let go of Bella's arm and walked away around the corner, Bella watching her, her mouth slightly open with shock. What had that all been about?

"Making friends?" the Doctor asked her smiling.

"Uh, yeah – kind of…" Bella said still feeling confused.

"C'mon," he grinned. "Let's explore!"

They walked all around the house and in the gardens together, with the lord's permission, of course, asking various people about what they've seen of this odd creature, but they didn't really find anything out.

"Ooh! Let's try him," the Doctor said suddenly, moving towards one of the young men mucking out the stables. "Hello, good sir!"

The young dark haired man looked up to see the Doctor and Bella smiling politely at him, Bella's presence making him go bright red as he stood up. "How can I help you my lord and lady?"

"Firstly, by not calling us lord and lady," the Doctor said smiling, Bella nodding fiercely in agreement. "Now, I'm the Doctor and this is Bella, we're from Scotland Yard in London. Well, I am, she's just with me." He added as he held up his psychic paper which the boy looked at briefly before Bella took it and looked at it frowning.

"What's this?" she whispered.

"Psychic paper," he told her quietly. "Shows people whatever I want them to see. Very useful at being a party invitation."

"Cool," Bella said smiling.

"Anyway," the Doctor continued, looking back to the boy. "Have you seen the giant bird before today?"

After finding out nothing from the stable boy, Bella walked beside the Doctor on the stone balcony slowly, the sun disappearing behind the hills. Nightfall was falling around them and the temperature was also decreasing.

"Doctor, can I ask you something?" Bella asked tentatively.

"Course you can!" he smiled at her as they continued walking.

"When I was with that Dalek in the prison cell he – well, he told me that you destroyed his kind in a war of time or something." She said rather gently, as the Doctor came to a stop. "He said that you paid for what you did – that it was worse than death… What did he mean by that?"

The Doctor looked away from her and leant on the stone rail so he looked out over the lake. "The Time War was a war between the Daleks and my own kind, the Time Lords. It went on for centuries and it was just getting worse and worse and I realised I was the only one who could stop it."

Bella moved to his side, facing him and leaning on the barrister too. She looked at him and found his face full of pain.

"In order to destroy the Daleks, I had to destroy the Time Lords too." He said quietly, looking down to her. "I am the only one left. The last Time Lord, Bella. In order to save the universe I had to kill them: my family, my friends, everyone."

Bella said nothing, but turned to face the lake, taking hold of the Doctor's left hand in her right one. He looked down at their hands and felt himself smile very slightly.

"I can't even begin to imagine how that must feel," Bella said very quietly, holding the Doctor's hand tightly. "And I'm not even going to try… but, I am sorry, Doctor."

They looked at each other and the Doctor smiled at her for a moment before someone behind them cleared their throat.

"I apologise for interrupting, my lord and lady," said a greying old butler. "But your presence is desired in the dining hall for dinner."

The Doctor lay on his four poster bed, thinking about the curious Mammonteal. It didn't belong here on earth. It was all rather odd.

There was a knock at the door to which he answered "Come in." Bella peaked around the door and the Doctor sat up smiling.

"We aren't supposed to be in the same room together, you know." He smiled.

"Well, I won't tell anyone if you don't." Bella said, closing the door behind her. She walked over to his bead and sat down on the end of it uncomfortably. "So, this Mammonteal…"

"I was just thinking about that myself," The Doctor said quietly, moving so he was sitting next to her. "It's a bit out of place."

"Where is Mammenth exactly?"

"It's four galaxies away," he told her. "It's a long way from home."

"Why would it come here though?" Bella asked. "The eighteen hundreds consist of over wealthy lords that spend most of their time hunting birds and other creatures that are big enough to mount on their walls."

"Mmm," the Doctor agreed, liking Bella more and more with each passing comment.

"And let's face it," she continued. "Lord MacGreggor is no different."

"I know and that is what worries me…" the Doctor said, as they both fell into a thoughtful silence. After a while a question that had been nagging at him for the whole day returned to his mind. "Bella, did you only decide to come with me because you were declared dead?"

She looked at him, startled. "No, of course not!" she said. "I came with you because I wanted to."

The Doctor smiled slightly, feeling much better about himself.

"To be perfectly honest with you, I regretted not going with you in the first place." She continued. "It was a bit stupid turning something like that down. And I must admit," she paused, her cheeks reddening slightly. "That I – oh never mind…"

"What?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"Well," Bella started, obviously embarrassed about something. "I kind of took your promise seriously, you know how you said you would come back and visit me, so I sold all the animals, so if you wanted me to, I could come with you."

The Doctor grinned at her as she looked down, her face red. "I should have come back to get you sooner!"

She looked up to him and smiled. "So you didn't just ask me to come with you because you felt sorry for me?"

"Defiantly not!" the Doctor said smiling.

They looked to each other for a moment before Bella stood up.

"This thing is so uncomfortable!" she exclaimed, full of frustration. "No matter how I sit it digs in!"

"Have you tried lying down?" the Doctor suggested.

She shook her head and he nodded to the other side of his four poster bed. She walked around as the Doctor leant back on his pillows, still sitting up. She sat on the edge of the bed before ungracefully lying down.

"That wasn't graceful." She said as the Doctor laughed at her. "But you're right. It is a little more comfortable than sitting."

He smiled.

"So, why do I get the feeling that you've had a few more adventures on Earth than just saving my life from Slitheen and then chasing a pile of dinosaur bones around Cardiff?" Bella asked smiling. "Were you involved with them plastic mannequins wandering around?"

"Might have been," he laughed.

"And what about that spaceship that crashed into Big Ben?"

"That was the Slitheen," he said. "You already know about that story."

She nodded. "What about those ghosts that turned into the metal men?"

"They were Cybermen, travelling through a void in time and space from their own parallel universe into ours, helped along by Torchwood One." He told her. "That was before Jack's time with Torchwood."

"Good," she said, "and what about the whole ATMOS thing, 'cause I reckon that had to have something to do with aliens. I mean the way the sky burned –"

"That was me." He told her, making her grin.

"But you were defending the world against aliens, right?"

"Of course,"

"Ha!" she said triumphantly. "And what about the Earth being moved and the Daleks, Were you trying to stop them?"

"Yeah I was," he said quietly. "My friend saved the day that time."

Bella looked to him and noticed his pain-filled expression. "Who was it?"

"Her name was Donna," he said quietly.

"Where is she now?"

"At home, safe with her family," he told her, trying to lighten the mood again. Bella nodded, getting the hint.

"Did you see Harriet Jones' subwave network message thing?"

The Doctor looked to her sharply. "How did you know about that?"

"I saw it on my TV, but no one else in my sitting room could see it."

"That's because it was meant for people who knew me." He said. "The TARDIS must have seen you coming and patched you in, or Harriet Jones knew you before she died. Not everything happens in order with me remember."

To Be Continued...


	15. Ep3 EggChange CH4

Episode four Egg Change CH4

The next morning the Doctor and Bella decided to split up with their investigating; the Doctor deciding to go for a bit of a hike to see if he could find any traces of the Mammonteal, Bella deciding to stay indoors and ask the maids, kitchen staff and the cleaners of anything unusual.

As the Doctor winked at her before walking out the front door and closing it behind him, Bella smiled and headed towards the kitchens. She thought that would be the best place to start, because the kitchen staff and maids always over heard everything because the lords and ladies always forgot about them.

She opened the wooden kitchen door slowly and peaked in. All the women were running around madly, carrying pots with boiling water, and trays with hot, steaming bread. She smiled as an older woman barked orders to get the younger girls working instead of talking. Some things never change.

She took a step in and softly shut the door behind her.

"Come on girls," the older women said with a thick Scottish accent, her voice tired. "We have to get ready for lunch!"

"Can I help?" Bella asked cheerfully.

The older woman looked at her as if she were barking mad before remembering her manners. "No, my lady, we are fine, thank you for your offer."

"I really don't mind," Bella assured her smiling still. "I feel really bad that you have been put under extra pressure to cater for the Doctor and I."

"Don't," the old lady said. "We cook this much for the MacGregor's every day. You and your husband have not increased our workload in the slightest."

Bella stared at her. "You're kidding?"

Some of the girls surrounding them laughed.

"The only thing that you're doing is cutting our extras in half," said one of the young servant boys cheekily.

"Oi, you watch your tongue!" the old lady said, cuffing the boy over his ears.

"It's alright," Bella laughed. "I would really like to help, to make up for all the extras we are eating."

The young boy giggled before the old lady pushed him away.

"Go on, go and get the potatoes for lunch." She said, before turning to Bella. "You aren't half odd, you know."

Bella grinned.

"You know how to stir soup?"

"Yep," Bella said enthusiastically as the old lady handed her a wooden spoon and pointed to a large black pot on the coal stove. "Thank you,"

"You might need an apron," said one of the girls handing her a white apron, which she tied around her before stirring the thick soup, the older woman chopping up ingredients beside her and adding them in.

"So, have any of you seen that giant bird that attacked us all yesterday before?" Bella asked conversationally.

"We haven't seen it," the old lady said darkly. "But we've heard Lord MacGregor talking about it."

"When did this start?"

"About a week ago," she said. "A group went out hunting, then came back raving about it. Said it was the biggest bird they'd ever seen. We've all been waiting for the Lord to bring it home with him to make us cook it."

"He wants to kill it?" Bella said quietly.

"Oh, yes, all the lords around these parts do." She laughed, obviously unimpressed by the idea. "They've got a sort of competition going on to see who can kill it and hang it's head on the wall."

"That's unbelievably cruel." Bella said quietly.

"Yes, well, no disrespect intended, but that pretty much sums up our lovely lord for you."

Bella nodded, looking down at the soup.

The Doctor reached the summit of the tall mountain by noon, judging by the sun in the sky and he'd only managed to reach it so quickly because of his large Time Lord lungs. He had a look around and saw some claw marks in the soft dirt and he followed them until he came across a very large nest make of logs instead of twigs. He peered cautiously into it and found it disappointedly empty. There were emerald green feathers interwoven into the wood making the nest, making it look quite spectacular.

He wished Bella had come with him, even though it would have taken them about the full day to get up here, but he thought the look on Bella's face would have been worth it.

He sighed. "What is it that you want?" he said aloud, before beginning to walk back the way he came.

After lunch, Bella was left with the girls in the room with the beautiful grand piano. She didn't exactly mind this because as she pointed out to the Doctor before he'd left, she would have only held him up while wearing this overlarge dress and he had to agree with her.

Bella played the piano, with a song she had written herself many years ago when her guardians had made her stay at home during the holidays. Sally sat beside her on the piano chair watching her with an awe-filled gazed and the two other girls sat on the soft chairs, knitting.

"You play beautifully, lady Bella." Sally said.

"Thank you," Bella said smiling. "But what have I told you about my name. It's just Bella; there is no need to call me lady."

"Yes, Bella," Sally said, blushing slightly.

"You know, my best friend's name is Sally," Bella told her as she played. "You remind me of her a bit, when she was younger. But she is eighteen now, my age.

"Have you known your Doctor long then, Bella?" Beatrice asked and Bella stopped playing the piano and turned to her not wanting to be rude.

"Not long actually," Bella admitted, smiling slightly.

"It was an arranged marriage then?"

"No," Bella said almost laughing, "Not at all."

Beatrice sighed longingly. "I plan to be wed before my eighteenth birthday. That is more or less when the women of our family wed. Of course, I only have two more years to meet the perfect man."

Bella smiled awkwardly. The Doctor wasn't exactly _her perfect man_. Although, she did think he was pretty close to be perfect in some ways, but he definitely wasn't hers and he certainly wasn't a man as such.

"The Doctor really seems to care for you, Bella." Beatrice said quietly.

"Really?" asked Bella, feeling surprised.

"Oh yes," Beatrice said nodding. "He is very protective of you we could all see that down at the lake. I can only hope that the man I marry will care for me like he does for you."

Bella looked into the fire beside her, not listening to Beatrice as she rambled about the man of her dreams, but thinking deeply about what she had said before. Bella had never really noticed how the Doctor and her interacted with each other. Was he really protective of her? Of course, it could mean nothing, as Beatrice was from a completely different century to her, but she didn't think the meaning of the word 'protective' had changed that much. She sighed slightly and looked up to the shelf above the fire place.

"What is that?" She asked, standing up.

"Oh, _that_," Beatrice said in a bored voice. "Father found it one day when he was hunting. He believes it could be quite valuable considering how unique it is. Next time he goes to London he is going to get it priced."

"It's perfect," Bella said as she moved a bit closer to it, "A bit too perfect to be honest with you." She lifted her right hand and touched the warm, egg-shaped black marbled stone.

"Don't touch that rock!" said MacGregor angrily bursting into the room and glaring at her.

The Doctor ran into the room behind him and his brown eyes quickly swept over Bella and focused on something above Bella.

"Bella," he said quietly and slowly. "Come here, slowly and don't look around."

Bella froze and considered looking around out of curiosity, but the Doctor held out his left hand. MacGregor had frozen beside him and had a look of terror on his face. The three girls were now halfway out the door heading towards their mother, who looked as though she might feint. She moved slowly towards the Doctor, her hand reaching out for his and when she reached him, she turned to discover the Mammonteal standing on the window ledge outside the stain-glass window.

The large bird's golden eyes were focused on her and its emerald green feathers moved in the breeze and shone in the afternoon sunlight.

"It's beautiful," Bella whispered her voice full of awe. The Doctor glanced at her, smiling.

"Why isn't it attacking us?" MacGregor ordered looking to both the Doctor and Bella who were staring at the giant bird in amazement.

"Mammonteals don't generally attack or hurt people," the Doctor said calmly. "They are a peaceful ra- bird."

"You were going to say race, weren't you?" Bella whispered, smiling at him.

The Doctor smiled and moved forward a few steps, still holding onto Bella's hand. "Hello," he said cheerfully as the amazing bird's gaze moved from Bella to him. "I am the Doctor and this is Bella," (she smiled fearlessly) "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Even if a bird could talk, no disrespect intended," she added to the bird as it gazed at her. "How are we to understand it?"

"The TARDIS," the Doctor explained. "She translates other languages for us in our heads. Handy little accessory, I must say."

"Really?" she asked. "So if we went to – oh, I dunno – Japan or something and I spoke in Japanese, what would happen?"

"Well, from experience they would probably think you were speaking Chinese." The Doctor answered, remembering Donna's attempt to speak Latin when they were in Pompeii.

"Whoa!" Bella exclaimed.

The Mammonteal gave a sudden ear-splitting screech and the Doctor and Bella jumped backwards as the bird crashed through the glass window. The Doctor grabbed her and protected her from the shards of sharp glass falling about them before looking up the furious bird.

"What did we do?" Bella asked, as the three girls and Margarite ran screaming from the room.

"I dunno," the Doctor said confused. "RUN!"

The Doctor and Bella followed MacGregor and his family down the corridor and into the cellar, where a number of the workers and maids had already hidden themselves. When the Doctor and Bella had entered, two men braced the door and they were plunged into semi-darkness, while the Mammonteal crashed into the door.

"I don't understand!" The Doctor said panting ever-so-slightly, Bella seeing that he was very frustrated. He paced back and forth running his hands through his hair as the girls all sunk to the ground. "The Mammonteals are a gentle race – they are herbivores and they are never violent towards people –"

BANG!

"I mean, they do sometimes get a bit territorial over their –"

"Eggs!" exclaimed Bella, hitting herself in the head, before looking directly at MacGregor.

The Doctor looked to her, alarmed slightly, and then followed her gaze to Applebee who was grasping a large black marble, perfectly oval stone.

"Oh, Bella, you are brilliant!" The Doctor said quietly and very seriously.

"You stole her egg," Bella accused MacGregor dangerously.

"It is not an egg!" MacGregor said defensively.

"Then how do you explain how perfect it is then?" Bella asked angrily. "No human could ever make something that flawless. Where did you find it? Up in the mountains? In something that looked remarkably like a giant bird's nest, was it?"

"It is not an egg!" MacGregor repeated angrily, glaring at Bella.

"You've known what that bird has wanted all along haven't you?" Bella asked. "When we first saw it by the lake, you seemed a bit too interested in finding out what it was. You were scared alright, but not for the right reasons! One minute you were ready to shoot it, the next you were saying you needed a strong drink to calm your nerves. Funny thing is though, my _lord_, is that that egg was kept in the room with your alcohol. Decide that you needed to go and check on it did you? Afraid you might tip us off if we were with you considering we knew what the bird was?"

"Bella," the Doctor said, smiling at Bella. "You are a genius! That is a brilliant summery!"

"Thank you," Bella said with dignity.

"You're welcome!" The Doctor laughed.

"You want it for yourself!" MacGregor accused. "You have lost everything to thieves, so now you want to steal from us!"

"We don't need _money_ to make us happy." The Doctor said, somewhat offended by that idea. "We travel to do that."

"You _need_ money to travel, you imbecile!" MacGregor snapped.

"Not the way we do it." The Doctor stated.

MacGregor gasped. "I thought you were both respectable! Yet you are nothing more than gypsy scum!" He grabbed Bella's arm and yanked her forward. She cried out in pain and the Doctor quickly intervened, grabbing hold of Bella's shoulders and moving her behind him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" The Doctor said quietly and dangerously, slightly surprising himself at how protective he had become of her already.

BANG!

"It's almost through!" Beatrice screamed.

"MacGregor," Bella said calmly, leaning around the Doctor, holding onto his arms so he wouldn't move forward. "This won't stop until you give back the egg. The reason the Mammonteal attacked us at the lake was because you had _her_ egg, so she decided to take one of _your_ children. It was an eye for an eye and I don't think she will leave you alone until she gets her egg back."

MacGregor thought about what Bella was saying quickly. "What do I need to do?"

"Open the door slowly and place the egg gently on the ground and then back away slowly." The Doctor instructed. "But do not turn your back."

MacGregor nodded and walked shakily to the door.

"This will work won't it, Doctor?" Bella whispered, looking up to him.

"Hope so," he said in an offhand kind of way making her frown.

They both watched as MacGregor opened the wooden cellar door. The Mammonteal stood still, its golden eyes ablaze with cold fury, watching MacGregor closely. He quickly put the large black marbled egg down on the ground and moved backward toward the Doctor and Bella. Bella quickly grabbed him by the arm as the very large bird took a step forward. It growled angrily before putting one of its very large golden claws around the egg, glaring at MacGregor furiously and turning around, leaving as quickly as it came.

The Doctor and Bella walked side-by-side up the lush green hill, Bella still in the dress she had been leant. They had been politely thanked, given their clothing back before being kicked out promptly afterwards. As they approached the TARDIS, the Doctor suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Bella asked, stopping to look at him.

"I want to give you this." He said, holding out his hand. "It's a key to the TARDIS."

Bella's eyes widened as she looked from the key to the Doctor. "Really?"

"Yep," he smiled, giving her the small, silver key.

She squealed excitedly and hugged the Doctor, who laughed. "Does this mean I get to drive?"

"Uh – maybe not just yet," The Doctor said hesitantly, beginning to walk again.

Bella laughed and they continued walking to the TARDIS. "Hey, Doctor?"

"Hmm?" he said.

"Why can't you just travel back in time and save the Time Lords?" She asked. "I mean, you could stop the war from ever happening."

"I can't. The Time War was locked so no one could do that. Besides, that would be going back on my own personal timeline and a council of Time Lords forbade it."

"But wouldn't they let you? You'd be saving their lives after all."

"The way it all happened was the only way to stop it." He told her darkly. "If I saved the Time Lords, I would have saved the Daleks too, meaning the War would have continued. And, I would have ended up in jail."

"I would have gone with you." Bella said quietly. "I would have kept you company in jail."

The Doctor sighed. "You would probably die in there, Bella."

Bella shrugged. She wouldn't have minded doing that for him.

They had reached the TARDIS.

"After you," the Doctor said.

Bella grinned at him and unlocked the TARDIS doors with her key and both of them walked in laughing. "Right, Space Man, you need to show me around this thing!"

* * *

**_Next time: The Doctor and Bella land in the Amazonian jungle where the Doctor runs into people he's met before; the ancient race who have managed to remain secret for all their lives, well, until now that is. Are the Doctor and Bella dealing with a race of exeptionally bright humans, or something more sinister?_**


	16. Ep4 Amazonian Secrets CH1

Ep4 Amazonian Secrets CH1

"So," the Doctor said as Bella walked up the stairs towards him. "Give me a number between one and ninety-nine."

"Is this for any particular reason, or are we merrily playing bingo?" She asked him, smiling sweetly.

"Just give me a number." The Doctor said, laughing slightly. He had to admit that Bella could be quite charming when she wanted to be.

"Alright, alright," Bella said, raising her arms in mock defeat, smiling at him, "How about twenty?"

"Perfect," said the Doctor, punching the number into the TARDIS's computer. "Give me another one?"

"Twelve?"

"Good, good, just one more,"

"Uh, eighty-nine?" she said hesitantly.

"Excellent," the Doctor grinned.

Bella stopped beside him and looked at the odd Gallifreyean text on the smallish screen. "Are you using those numbers as coordinates?"

"Very good," the Doctor said, impressed.

"I have my moments," She said shrugging as she smiled at him. "Where are they coordinates too?"

"Well, by the looks of it," he paused, reading the screen. "Earth, South America, in the Amazon and its 1970 A.D., home of the ancient Amazonian tribe who have somehow managed to evade detection for thousands of years."

"Quite an achievement," Bella smiled.

"It is actually," the Doctor agreed. "You humans are extremely curious. I don't think there is an inch of land that you lot haven't walked on and documented and now that you've all done that you've all become bored so you've had to start trying to discover the stars. As I told Harriet Jones a few years back you're beginning to get noticed. You are all very inquisitive indeed!"

"Is that a bad thing, though?" Bella asked him still smiling.

"Oh, come now, I never said that!" the Doctor said seriously. "Personally, I like it, means that it is slightly easier for me to blend in."

Bella laughed. "Now, I can't imagine you doing that!"

"What?" the Doctor said, looking at her and feeling slightly confused.

"Blending in," she giggled as the Doctor grinned at her.

"Getting a bit cheeky, aren't we?" the Doctor asked playfully before he pulled one of the leavers causing the klaxon to fire up noisily, meaning the TARDIS was now in flight. Bella held onto the centre consol as the Doctor danced around her, pushing buttons, pulling levers and occasionally hitting the consol with a hammer. She wondered when the TARDIS would stop.

"Just a bit further," the Doctor said loudly over all the noise, before they landed suddenly, the force of it knocking both of them off their feet.

The both of them burst out with side-splitting laughter that echoed around the TARDIS. Eventually, the Doctor managed to pull himself together enough so that he could sit up and wipe his eyes free of tears.

"Sorry 'bout that!" he said, snorting with laughter.

Bella's laughter slowed slightly, her eyes swimming with tears as well and she too sat up, looking to him and grinning broadly. He jumped up and held out his right hand, which she took and pulled herself up.

"Right then," he said, clapping his hands together and walking towards his overcoat, Bella following, grinning excitedly. "The ancient Amazonians, only people to have not been discovered, therefore good at evading people, self-sufficient and are mostly a pretty nice bunch of people."

"If they are good at evading everyone, then how are _we_ going to find them?"

"You just have to know where to look," he answered as he put on his coat, giving her a wink, before walking towards the door.

"But won't they – I dunno – attack us or something?"

"Of course not, Bella, they know me –"

But as the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS his words escaped him after discovering fifteen (he'd done a very quick head count and thankfully none of them had been moving around.) half-naked men pointing arrows, spears and small dagger-like-knives at him. Bella, who had obviously not seen them until the last minute, walked into the back of the Doctor and gasped before quickly closing the TARDIS doors. The Doctor felt very thankful towards Bella at that specific moment in time, as he had only just instructed her the day before that should they ever step out of the TARDIS and find themselves in a somewhat hostile situation (not unlike this one, he thought darkly) that the most important thing to do was to make sure the TARDIS doors were shut.

* * *

**_Authors Note: I got the idea for the opening scene from the animated Doctor Who story "the Infinite Quest". I just thought it was a fun way to start off an episode :P_**


	17. Ep4 Amazonian Secrets CH2

Ep4 Amazonian Secrets CH2

They had landed deep in the Amazonian forest. There were sunrays filtering through the top-most layers of the trees and everything seemed green and moist. They were obviously very near a stream, as it could be heard flowing gently not too far away.

"Blue box," One of the half-naked men observed, stepping forward.

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, his arms raised in surrender. "Yes it is."

The half-naked man exchanged glances with a younger boy beside him, before looking back to the Doctor and Bella. "You will come with us."

The Doctor exchanged a glance with Bella, before moving off after the man who had spoken, the rest of the men surrounding them so they could not escape. Side-by-side, the Doctor and Bella followed a small path through the green ferns, bugs and small, colourful birds flying about their heads. He was very glad that she wasn't one to say "I told you so".

After walking up a very small slope they came across what was obviously the village. The huts were made from sticks, dead branches and ferns from the tall trees. There were a surprising amount of people for a tribe that had managed to remain hidden. There were men sitting in groups talking to each other while they sharpened their knives and spears, the women worked and cleaned while keeping a watchful eye over their small children and the teenagers all hung around in groups just gossiping. Looked just like your average shopping centre.

Everyone was dressed in what Bella guessed as leather. Both the men and the women wore leather skirts, the latter being shorter and while the men wore no shirt, the women wore a short shirt that left their navels uncovered. They were all dark skinned and most of them wore their hair long. Some of them had their hair braided, while others (mostly men) had it tied up in a pony tail and a few men had their hair cut short which were mostly, Bella observed, were the men surrounding the Doctor and her.

"I feel slightly overdressed," Bella said quietly to the Doctor, who smiled slightly.

"You are," said several of the men surrounding her at the same time, including the Doctor.

Bella looked to him sharply, her eyebrows raised slightly.

"What I mean is," the Doctor said hastily, shocked that he had actually said that out loud. "That compared to them you are…"

"Right," Bella said sceptically as she looked back ahead of them, a slight smile on her face. "So, uh, why do they have accents like us? Is that part of what the TARDIS does too?"

The Doctor nodded glad for the change of subject. "She makes it so it's familiar to us."

"Wait – Does that mean we are talking Amazonian right now?" Bella asked enthusiastically, looking back to him.

"Yep," he smiled.

"Man that is so brilliant!" She exclaimed, but then frowned. "But where are we going?"

"We are taking you to my father, pretty lady." The man said beside Bella on her right.

She looked to him blushing ever-so-slightly and discovered that the 'man' would have been no older than twenty. He had brown eyes and black hair and his skin was close to the colour of chocolate. He smiled a dazzling smile at her as they walked.

"And your father would be?" the Doctor asked, leaning forward and distracting the young man's gaze from Bella.

"My father is Panara, leader of the –"

"Wanadi Tribe," the Doctor finished nodding.

"Yes," the young man said. "My father has been waiting for you to return, Doctor. It was predicted many years ago by my grandfather, Quando."

"Really?" the Doctor asked coming to a stop and looking to him, "Does that mean we aren't prisoners?"

"Of course not, Doctor, more honoured guests than anything else."

"Oh, brilliant!" the Doctor smiled. "So you must be Quando's grandson then!"

"I am Tari," the young man bowed. "My grandfather told me of your last visit Doctor."

"Last visit?" Bella asked, looking up to the Doctor, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, the last time I was here was nearly fifty years ago, I do believe."

"Sixty actually, Doctor." Tari said smiling.

"Sixty?" the Doctor repeated. "Wow, time flies! Anyway, the last time I was here I was chasing an insane computer that had teleported itself and me here all the way from Belgium. It took me quite sometime to get myself back to the TARDIS, that's for sure!"

Bella smiled in a rather breathtaking way and shook her head slightly. "You really are an amazing man, Doctor!"

"Ah, thank you!" he grinned.

Laughing slightly, the Doctor and Bella continued following the guards, much more relaxed about the situation now that they knew they weren't about to be killed. They were led inside a cave that neither of them noticed was there until they were right on top of it. The way was lit up by flaming wooden torches and it suddenly opened up into a vast cave that was lit with fire and crystals.

Bella stopped in wonder as she took in the vast sight of it all. There was a running stream moving gracefully through the middle of the cave and a waterfall that took the water out of the cave. At the far end of the cave, Bella saw a large statue of a man that had the legs and abdomen of a man but the head and upper torso of a very large snake.

"Very _Chamber of Secrets_, isn't it?" Bella asked quietly as she began to walk forward again.

"It is a statue of one of the legendary creatures that the Wanadi Tribe worship. It's kind of like a God in a way." The Doctor explained quietly. "It lives in all the rivers and streams and it can shape-shift into anything it wants to frighten away fisherman. Its normal form is that of a giant snake and it protects the Amazonian people, its forests and its animals."

"The Cobra-Grande," Bella stated.

"Very good, young girl," said an older man who was now standing before them. "I would not have expected such knowledge from such a pale face." He smiled at her before turning to the Doctor. "You have not changed in the slightest, Doctor. You are the same as when I saw you last."

The Doctor smiled and shook the man's hand, seeing Bella's amazed expression on her face. "You have a good memory, Panara; you were only ten at the time."

"Yes, well, how could I forget?" Panara smiled. "My father never stopped talking about you."

"Really? Where is the old chap?" the Doctor asked, looking around the cave at all the faces.

"That is why we were expecting you both." Panara said seriously. "My father predicted that this would happen."

"That what would happen?" the Doctor asked moving forwards slightly.

"He was kidnapped, Doctor." Tari said beside Bella.

"Kidnapped?" the Doctor repeated and Bella could tell that this startled him.

"By whom? I thought that your existence was known to no one."

"So did we," Panara said. "My father predicted two years ago that our existence would be made known to another tribe; the Pucu. When this happened he said that two things would occur; that he would be kidnapped and that you would come, Doctor, bringing with you the pale girl with golden hair,"

The Doctor looked around to Bella, who looked startled.

"What does Bella have to do with it?" the Doctor asked.

"She is the one who can find him," Panara told him. "She is the one who can figure everything out to save my father."

Bella looked around, feeling confused. "How am I supposed to do that? I know nothing about anything here!"

"My father knew that but he said that you would figure it out on your way to finding him." Panara said solemnly. "His life depends on it, on you! If you do not find the Pucu Tribe, his life will surely end."

"Hold on a minute," the Doctor said moving in between Bella and Panara. "Before anything else gets said or decided, who are the Pucu and what would they want with Quando? I've never even heard of them before."

"The Pucu are assassin races, who have long been a threat to us. They kill by means of a poison dart that at first only knocks you out, but the longer it is left in your system, the more deadly it becomes."

"And you want us to go after them?" Bella asked making sure she had heard correctly, "with those things?"

"Neither of you will get hurt on this mission," Panara said calmly. "My father sees you re-entering your little blue box safe and sound."

"Oh, well in that case," Bella said sarcastically. "What are we waiting for?"

"My grandfather said you would be feisty!" Tari grinned.

"Let me see this poison dart," the Doctor said curiously as Panara nodded.

"Rapau, show the Doctor." Panara said.

The man that had first spoken to them when they had stepped out of the TARDIS held out a large metal syringe that would have been about fifteen centimetres long. It was filled with a shinny, blue liquid. The man called Rapau gave it to the Doctor, who put on his black brainy specs and began to examine it.

"Now that doesn't look very Amazonian." Bella observed.

"It's not," the Doctor said to her before looking back up to Panara. "Have you identified the liquid?"

"No," Panara answered. "My daughter Kachiri has been working on identifying it for almost a year now and has only just discovered that it is not made from plants."

"I could have told you that just by looking at it." The Doctor said, looking back to the dart.

"It looks kinda alien to me," Bella whispered to the Doctor. "Like something the Slitheen had –"

"What?" the Doctor said sharply, looking to her.

"In that room under my shed with that space ship," Bella explained. "They had loads of these in boxes. I saw them before they knocked me out, only they didn't have anything inside them…"

The Doctor frowned. "These darts don't belong to the Slitheen, Bella."

"They may not _belong_ to them, but they certainly _had_ them. They were exactly the same."

"I believe you, Bella," he told her truthfully. "But the Slitheen didn't create these."

"Maybe they brought them from someone else?" she suggested. "Aliens do that, right, the whole trading thing?"

"Yeah," he agreed. "But this is just – well, it's odd."

Bella bit her lip. "You don't think the Slitheen are behind this do you?"

"No," he said immediately in a reassuring way. Bella smiled and nodded before he looked back up to Panara. "Seems like you have quite a mystery on your hands."

"Are we going to help them?" Bella asked, the Doctor noticing an excited glint in her eyes.

The Doctor hesitated then gave in. "Oh, alright then, but where are these assassins?"

"My son and head guard will accompany you on this task. They know the location of their village, where they would most likely be holding my father against his will."

Panara told them. "I wish you all luck and great speed."


	18. Ep4 Amazonian Secrets CH3

Ep4 Amazonian Secrets CH3

The Doctor and Bella followed Tari and Rapau out of the village down a less used path. Both the Amazonians were armed with small knives, bows and arrows and spears. This made Bella feel slightly uneasy, for she rather hoped that they could get Quando back without resulting in using the weapons.

"So, what does this rival tribe – the Pucu – want with your grandfather?" Bella asked.

"Quando knows all of our tribe's secrets and where we keep them hidden." Tari explained.

"What kind of secrets?" she asked curiously.

"If we told you that, pale one, we would have to kill you." Rapau said quickly, giving her the impression that he didn't like her overly much.

"Oh, okay then…" She said, looking slightly startled.

The Doctor leant closer to her and said very quietly "It's their stash of treasure that they have accumulated over the years. Museums everywhere would literally kill for the relics that they posses."

Bella felt her mouth fall slightly, looking wearily to Rapau, before deciding to change the subject. "So – um – this Cobra-Grande, doesn't it attack the Wanadi?"

"No," the Doctor told her, speaking normally again. "It only attacks fishermen who come to the Amazon. The Cobra-Grande allows the Wanadi and the other local tribes to hunt in and around the river because he knows that they will look after the land and the animals that live here. They aren't making a profit, they are just living."

"So basically – correct me if I am wrong – but basically the Cobra-Grande helps keep them secret and safe as long as they look after everything?"

"Yep," the Doctor grinned.

"Well, that's a pretty good deal, if you ask me!" Bella said.

"Yes, we agree." Tari smiled.

Bella laughed as Tari grinned at her before they both suddenly cried out in alarm.

"Bella," the Doctor cried as both Bella and Tari were enclosed in a rope net trap each and lifted simultaneously into the air. As they dangled high up in the trees, Bella sighed.

"Seems we walked into that one, didn't we?" she said, looking down to the Doctor, who smiled when he realised she was okay. "Are these some of your traps?" She asked Tari and Rapau.

"No, we have no need for setting traps." Rapau said angrily, leaping up into the tree that Tari was hanging from.

"We are silent killers!" Tari boasted, smiling at Bella. "We creep up behind our enemy and –"

"I hardly think that that is anything to boast about!" Bella said shortly making the Doctor smile again.

Tari shrugged indifferently (though the Doctor suspected Bella's unconcern for hunting stung him a little) before looking up to Rapau, who was now sitting on the branch that the rope was tied to.

"Ready?" Rapau asked Tari, who grinned in response. Rapau rolled his eyes slightly before producing a small, sharp knife that sliced through the rope easily.

Bella gasped as Tari fell to the ground at rapid speed, but to her own amazement, Tari did a summersault in mid air before landing lightly on his feet.

"Well, I hope you don't expect me to do that!" Bella stated, feeling suddenly nervous.

"Don't worry, I'll catch you." The Doctor and Tari said at the same time. They looked to each other, the Doctor scowling slightly as Tari smirked.

"Nothing like showing off Tari." Rapau said, clearly unimpressed.

"I can't help myself when there is such a pretty lady present, Rapau." Tari answered, still looking at the Doctor smirking.

"Well, I'm going to cut the rope," Rapau said impatiently.

Tari stepped back, holding out his arm to offer the Doctor the chance to catch Bella. The Doctor moved forward, wanting very much to say something really witty to him, but he didn't. He positioned himself underneath her, ready to catch her.

"Alright," the Doctor said, looking up.

Rapau cut the rope and Bella fell quickly into the Doctor's waiting arms, where he discovered she was much lighter than he would of thought.

"Hello," she said grinning at him.

"Nice of you to drop by!" he said grinning back at her.

She giggled. "Nice one!"

As the Doctor let her down, he heard Tari scoff "Lame!" The Doctor rolled his eyes. He didn't think that his joke had been that bad, and Bella was still laughing softly to herself, so it couldn't have been too _lame_.

"The Pucu Tribe must know that we are coming." Rapau said, completely destroying the somewhat joyful mood. "That may complicate our task."

"Oh, stop being so negative." Tari said lightly, picking up his weapons. "How could they possibly know? The only people who are aware of this rescue mission are a select few in our own tribe."

"That might just be the problem." The Doctor said quietly. "How much do you all trust each other?"

"Are you suggesting that someone in the Wanadi Tribe has turned traitor?" Tari asked hotly.

"Yes, I think I am!" the Doctor said before Bella shot him a warning glance.

"That is absolutely impossible, Doctor." Tari said, angry now. "I will not hear another word against my people!" He turned and continued walking in the direction they had been walking in before the traps had stalled them.

Rapau said nothing, but nodded once before following Tari with his head bowed. The Doctor looked down to Bella beside him who looked slightly concerned before both of them continued to follow the others side-by-side. As they walked, Bella kept a cautious eye out for more traps.

"Do you really think someone could have betrayed the Wanadi Tribe, Doctor?" Bella asked quietly.

The Doctor looked down to her. "Don't let Tari hear you say that."

"I don't care what that kid hears me say," she said hotly. "It feels as though we are walking into a trap – a trap worse than the ones before." She added.

The Doctor looked ahead to the others. "My thoughts exactly,"

Bella nodded and looked ahead of them too. "So, you're looking pretty good for someone who is over the age of sixty." Bella said, looking back to him and squinting. "Not one single grey hair! Uh – so how old are you exactly? Seventy? Eighty? Ninety?"

"You'll never guess," the Doctor said smiling.

"Well, spit it out then!" she grinned.

"I'm nine hundred and six,"

She stopped walking and stared at him disbelievingly. He walked on a few steps before stopping also and turning back to her.

"I told you you'd never guess." He smiled at her.

"Wow, nine hundred… Is that a Time Lord thing too?"

The Doctor nodded.

"Blimey," she said, still staring at him. "You look fantastic! I mean, no grey hairs, hardly any wrinkles – I mean no wrinkles whatsoever!"

The Doctor laughed as Bella grinned at him.

"Oi, you two!" Tari hissed at them and they turned to him. "The village is empty, it's just up ahead."

"Empty?" Bella repeated, the smile sliding off her face.

"Yes, that is what I said!" Tari snapped, before composing himself. "Sorry, Bella, I'm just worried about my grandfather, that's all."

"Where else would the Pucu go?" the Doctor asked, his smile replaced by a frown.

Tari looked to him. "The one place that we would not be able to find."

"Which is?" the Doctor and Bella asked at the same time.

"The place where all of our secrets are hidden," Rapau said solemnly, walking up to them. "Only Quando knows its exact location. He was set to pass on that particular secret to Panara when he handed over tribal leadership officially."

"Which was meant to be when?" The Doctor asked.

"Tomorrow," Tari and Rapau answered at the same time.

"Ah," the Doctor said grimly. "That is slightly problematic then…"

"Can't we – I dunno – follow their tracks or something?" Bella suggested.

"That is what we were planning on doing, but it will have to wait until morning." Rapau told her. "Night is falling quickly –"

"But if we wait until morning t might be too late!" Bella said. "If we go now we might have a chance to catch up to them before they reach your secret cave!"

"I don't know if you've notice, pale face," Rapau began, looking slightly amused. "But we aren't carrying torches."

Bella sighed and rolled her eyes. "Men,"

"Oi!" the Doctor said, watching as she began moving towards the village.

"We have an abandoned village," Bella explained. "Don't you think we could, oh I dunno, maybe commandeer some torches?"

The Doctor exchanged a quick glance with Tari and Rapau before following Bella down the worn dirt path. Why hadn't he thought of using abandoned torches?

Just as Tari had informed them the village was completely empty. They moved through what looked like some kind of small market place, where they traded food and things, all four of them shifting through various objects. Bella picked up what looked like some kind of branding iron and the Doctor looked to her.

"That's used for branding the Pucu with a skull on their arms." Rapau explained to them, making Bella wince. "It's so they can identify each other when travelling abroad."

"I will never understand why you humans feel the need to brand yourselves." The Doctor said, shaking his head.

"It's like a toughness test," Bella said. "The more tattoos you have the more of a man you are obviously!" She finished sarcastically.

"But they don't even look good," the Doctor said.

"Oh, I totally reckon you'd look hot as if you got one of these skulls with a snake coming out of its jaw." Bella said seriously, but the sides of her mouths twitched and the Doctor knew she was mucking around. "Seriously, just put it on your forearm and you'd have the pick of the girls!"

The Doctor laughed at her as she finally grinned before Tari gave a sudden shout.

"I found some torches," he told them as he handed them a torch made from dead branches each. They quickly lit them using one of the fires that hadn't been put out yet and Tari and Rapau led the Doctor and Bella out of the village by reading the Pucu's tracks.

"Very _Survivor_," Bella whispered smiling.

"You know, Bella, you watch way too much television." The Doctor stated smiling at her.

She laughed. "What else was I supposed to do while I waited for you?" she said as the Doctor smiled again.

"Stop," Rapau ordered suddenly holding up his left hand. He seemed to be listening intently, as did Tari. Bella glanced up to the Doctor and she got the expression that his Time Lord ears could pick up some kind of noise.

Bella strained her own ears trying to hear something, but it was no use.

"Get down!" Rapau suddenly yelled, but he needn't of. At the same instant that Rapau yelled the Doctor had grabbed Bella and pulled her to the ground, his strong arms shielding her from the fall.

They all heard something (or rather, multiple somethings) fly over their heads and hit the trees directly in front of them. Bella lifted her head slightly to see what the objects had been and gasped.

"The poison darts!" she cried.

"RUN!" the Doctor yelled, jumping up and pulling Bella to her feet. Tari and Rapau quickly did the same and moments later they were all running for their lives, jumping over small bushes and fallen logs, none of them knowing where they were running too.

It seemed to Bella like an hour had past when Tari and Rapau finally began to slower their pace. As she began to slow down ever-so-slightly and the Doctor overtook her, she risked a glance over her shoulder as she continued running. _Nothing there_, Bella said to herself, sighing in relief. She looked back in front of her and let out a startled cry as she ran straight into the Doctor, propelling backwards and landing on her back.

"Damn Newton and his laws!" She cried out painfully as she sat back up.

"You alright?" the Doctor asked, a slight smile on his face.

"Yeah," Bella nodded. "Wasn't watching where I was going."

"I noticed," the Doctor said before turning to Tari and Rapau, his expression serious now. "They know about us and our little rescue mission. Now how would they know about us unless someone tipped the Pucu off?"

"No one has betrayed us, Doctor!" Tari snapped.

"Doctor," Bella said quietly, but the Doctor payed no attention to her. Now was not the time to keep the peace, lives depended on this – _their_ lives.

"It sure seems like it!" the Doctor said, full of frustration. "First the rope traps, now the poison darts! Someone has told the Pucu that we were coming and they know how you work!"

"Tari, the Doctor is right," Rapau said and the Doctor gave him a thankful nod.

"No one would ever –"

"No one even knows that your tribe exists, Tari!" The Doctor said, "Except me and now Bella. I doubt that Quando would have told the Pucu that he foresaw us coming, he wouldn't want to make it even harder for us." The Doctor paused before continuing more gently. "It could be anyone in your tribe, Tari, anyone at all. Someone who feels undervalued or overworked or underappreciated…"

Tari seemed to think about what the Doctor was saying for a moment before a sudden look of recognition flashed across his young face. The Doctor was about to ask when Bella said his name quietly.

"Doctor?"

This time Bella had gotten the Doctor's attention. He could hear in her voice that something was off, that something was very wrong. He turned quickly and found Bella kneeling on the ground still, facing away from them.

"Bella?" the Doctor asked, moving toward her.

"Look," she said quietly and the Doctor moved around to her right and knelt.

There on the ground was a small white skeleton with all its bones in their correct positions. The Doctor found this a bit odd, as surely animals would have come and disturbed it.

"I fell on him," Bella said, looking up to the Doctor.

"How do you know it's a him?" Rapau asked, leaning over the two of them to get a better look.

_Get some perspective_, the Doctor thought. _How did Bella fall on him and not crush some of the bones?_ _This skeleton is pristine!_

"The shape of the pelvis," Bella said absentmindedly, giving the Doctor the impression that she was thinking more along the same lines as he was. "It isn't wide enough to belong to a girl. I mean, this skeleton would be taller than me, so if it were to belong to a girl, the pelvis should have begun to change shape, become wider ready for bearing children."

The Doctor nodded in agreement and Rapau didn't press the matter. He picked up the skull and put on his black brainy specs and frowned. "Well, there doesn't seem to be any sign of physical trauma…"

"Doctor, he could have died from anything out here!" Bella pointed out. "Disease, starvation, blood loss –"she stopped mid-sentence.

"Poison dart," the Doctor continued. "Some kind of mosquito-bourn disease –"

"Wait," Bella said, grabbing the Doctor's left arm, nearly causing him to drop the skull. "Blood loss – Doctor, look at all the ants!"

The Doctor looked around the skeleton and found that it was on what looked like an old ant hill that had been destroyed by wild animals. "Yes, Bella, that's because it's an ant hill…" he said, looking back at her.

Bella rolled her eyes and stood up. "There is this old Amazonian legend that is hundreds of centuries old about the Nerinho Do Pastoreio."

Tari and Rapau looked at her, puzzled expressions on their faces, but the Doctor watched her intently, his mind working over time to try and catch up to her.

"Oh, come on, you don't even know your own ancestors stories?" Bella sighed exasperatedly. "The legend states that there was this young dark-skinned shepherd boy who was looking after his master's horses, but he lost them. His master was a cruel man who lashed the boy when he returned before he took the near dead boy into the forest and threw him –still bleeding – into an anthill where he eventually died due to blood loss. Legend has it that the young boy came back from the dead, invisible to all those who have forgotten him and he rides his horses all over the hill and in the forest. They say if you promise to light candles in his honour, he will help you find lost objects…"

The Doctor, who Bella had expected to scoff at what she was proposing, jumped up, his face full of excitement and energy. "Oh, Bella you are brilliant!"

Bella smiled and felt her cheeks redden, feeling taken aback by his reaction. "I didn't do anything but read a book at the library a few years ago…"

"Yes but none of us put two and two together, did we? I wouldn't of thought of it and these two have obviously forgotten the stories they were told as children!" he paused and looked at Bella proudly._ She certainly can hold her own_, he thought to himself. "And here I was thinking we would be walking around for five weeks trying to find that cave!"

"You mean that it would actually work?" Rapau asked, looking slightly shocked.

"Of course it will, we just need candles!" the Doctor grinned.

Tari knelt down and picked up a small candle that was on the ground beside him, not quite believing their luck. The Doctor pulled out a packet of water proof matches out of one of his jacket's many pockets and lit the candle.

Tari looked around him then shook his head. "Nothing," he told them.

"Here, let me try," Bella said, blowing out the candle and taking it off him. "Maybe you need to know what he felt like before he died… All alone with no one to help him…"

"And you know what that feels like do you?" Tari asked sceptically.

"Yes," she answered in what was almost a whisper, taking the match that the Doctor had just lit for her and passed it over the candle.

The Doctor looked at her and he saw for a fleeting moment a look of terrible pain flash across her face. As he surveyed her closely he could still see that pain in her eyes and he wondered if it had always been there or if he had just ignored it, because he knew what that pain felt like and he didn't want to have to confront it…

At first Bella didn't think that anything had happened, but then she heard a soft nicker behind them and she turned and gasped.

A pale, transparent boy sat upon a pale, transparent horse. The Boy was looking directly at Bella, his face full of emotion and his eyes were so sad. She stared at him, not knowing what else to do and she a single tear fell from her eyes.

She felt the Doctor slide his warm hand into hers and she suddenly had to fight the urge that wanted her to bury herself in the Doctor's safe, warm arms and just cry until she could cry no more. Cry for this poor boy, and cry for her father…

"Can you see him?" Bella asked as she struggled to keep herself from crying.

"No," the Doctor said softly, watching as tears continued to well up in her eyes. "But I can feel his presence here…"

Bella nodded, holding tight onto the Doctor's hand. "He so… alone and I can feel what he feels…" She whispered, her voice shaking.

The Doctor tightened his hold on Bella's hand. "You're not alone, Bella,"

Bella bit her lip to stop herself from letting out a sob. She would not let the Doctor see her like this. "I was once though, Doctor… and it felt just like he feels…"

"You'll never be alone again, I promise." The Doctor said, letting himself feel Bella's pain. She looked up to him and smiled very slightly before turning back to the young boy.

"He wants us to follow him," she told them, then looked back up to the Doctor.

"Lead the way," the Doctor said quietly and Bella nodded, letting go of his hand and moving off.

As Tari and Rapau followed her silently, he watched her walk with the candle cradled in her hands, protecting it from the breeze that threatened to blow it out. He wondered why he had suddenly promised to never leave her, because that was basically what he had done. He'd never done that before and with good reason, too. He didn't know what would happen in the future. They could run into trouble and he might _have _to leave her somewhere in order to protect her and he would _have_ to break his promise. At that thought he groaned inwardly. He might as well of just told her he loved her – not that he did, but promising something like _never _leaving her was just as big as saying those three little words, they were just as bad as each other for a Time Lord…

* * *

**_Author's note: The Nerinho Do Pastoreio is an actual Amazonian legend, as is the Cobra Grande I mentioned in the previous chapter, and I based this boy on him. I'm not sure I have done the legend, as there wasn't a lot I could find on it at the time. Just thought I'd give you in a little insight into the history behind it. If you want any additional information I can point you in the right direction :P_**


	19. Ep4 Amazonian Secrets CH4

Ep4 Amazonian Secrets CH4

The Doctor walked side-by-side with Rapau behind Tari and Bella, who was leading them safely through the forest. It had been at least an hour by the Doctor's reckoning since they had begun following the boy and none of them had spoken a word.

"What do you think made him lead us?" Rapau whispered quietly. "Do you think that she was thinking about the treasure in the cave?"

"No," the Doctor answered him quietly. "The object Bella is thinking of is not gold and riches, it is someone's life. Because his own life was taken, he only rewards those wish to preserve life and apparently those who at some stage of their life felt very alone. If Bella had been thinking of the treasure, the boy would not have shown himself to her…"

Suddenly, as if it appeared out of no where, they came across a dark entrance to a cave and they all came to a stop.

"He's gone," Bella said sadly. "I feel bad… we kind of just used him to find Quando… this must be where they are holding him."

She moved into the mouth of the cave before the Doctor put his hand on her arm, an indication that he wanted to go first. She fell in behind him still holding the candle and using it as a torch. They all followed silently, trying very hard to make as little noise as possible. They all could hear strong voices and they saw lights on up ahead. The Doctor exchanged a look with Bella before cautiously walking forward before poking their heads around a corner. Both the Doctor and Bella took in the scene before them, the Doctor's eyes narrowing slightly.

Quando was tied to a large pole in the centre of the cave and what looked like the entire Pucu tribe surrounded him in a circle. They were all tall and muscular and they all had tattoos covering most of their exposed skin. Their dark brown hair was think and long and they had a somewhat Indian – as in cowboy and Indian – feel to them.

"There are no children with them," Bella whispered, leaning closer to the Doctor who was on her left. "And there were no children left at their village… so where are all the children?"

"We've never seen children with them when we used to keep an eye on them." Rapau whispered to her on her right.

"When did you first come across them?" Bella asked as the Doctor closed his mouth. He was going to ask that question but she had beaten him to it. Obviously their minds were operating on the same wave length.

"A few years back," Rapau explained to Bella and the Doctor. "They turned up out of nowhere –"

"Kachiri, no!" yelled Tari suddenly, jumping out from their hiding place.

"Tari!" hissed the Doctor, Bella and Rapau.

While they had been whispering to each other, a different looking girl (the Doctor thought she could be no older than Bella) had stepped out from behind the pillar that Quando was tied to. She now stood looking up to where her brother had jumped out, a slight smile on her face.

"Wasn't she the one who was analysing the poison dart?" Bella whispered.

"I think we've found who was informing the Pucu Tribe." Rapau muttered darkly.

Two of the tall, muscular men stepped forward and grabbed Tari and held him still, while he stared at his sister, apparently devastated.

"Check where he came from." Kachiri ordered. "There were three others that travelled with my brother."

Before they could even think about turning and running back the way they had just come, six strong and surly men walked around the corner and grabbed them roughly. The three of them were then man-handled over to where Quando was, who smiled broadly at Bella.

A man stepped before them, his eyes a bright, slightly fluro, green colour. As Bella looked around, everyone from the Pucu tribe had the same green eyes. She found this odd and looked up to the Doctor, who was looking at the very large man frowning.

"Kachiri," the tall man said in an unusually deep voice. "Your information has been surprisingly accurate for a human, well done. You are not just a pretty face."

Kachiri smiled as her brother glared at her.

"For a human?" repeated Bella. "You make it sound as though species is optional."

The Doctor looked down to her, once again feeling proud.

The tall man looked to her. "Hmm, very observant," he said slowly. "It seems as though we have found another female with a brain."

"We all have brains," Bella snapped. "Some_ people_ – men included – just tend not to use it."

The man's lip curled. "Very feisty," he said as the men and women surrounding them laughed softly. "I never knew humans could be so pale… yet still somewhat beautiful."

"Is it just me or does it sound as though this lot doesn't come from around here?" The Doctor asked Bella, not liking where the odd looking man was going with his conversation.

"Well, I'm no expert or anything, and I certainly haven't been to any different planets – _yet_ – but it does seem as though there is some evidence to support your theory." Bella told the Doctor as they smiled slightly at each other. "The creepy green eyes are a dead give away though. Nothing else like 'em on Earth."

"Spot on again, Bella!" the Doctor grinned.

"Mars?" she offered.

The men and women surrounding them all growled in protest at being called Martians.

"Oh, that struck a cord." The Doctor said feeling slightly amused. "Nah, they're nothing like Martians – and I should know, I've met them!"

"Really?" asked Bella enthusiastically.

"Oh yeah, nice bunch of aliens, I'll take you there one time –"

"We are not from Mars!" the man said furiously and the smiles slid from the Doctor's and Bella's faces.

"Where are you from then?" the Doctor asked seriously. "And what do you want here on Earth?"

"We are from the Amber galaxy," the man said.

"Planet?" the Doctor ordered.

"Pacon,"

"Ahh," the Doctor said. "You really are the Pucu."

"How is it you know of us?" The man (or rather, the alien) ordered.

"Didn't I mention I was brilliant?" the Doctor asked, winking at Bella who smiled at him. "And what brings you all the way to planet Earth?"

"Take a look around you," the man said grinning, bearing his sharp teeth. "So much gold and diamonds and rubies –"

"Hold it," Bella said suddenly. "You lot are out-of-space treasure hunters? You've got the _entire_ universe and you come here to Earth?"

"Oh, Bella," the Doctor said. "Never doubt how brilliant your birth planet is. Other civilisations all over the universe would _kill_ to have a planet like this one, and believe me, some have tried. But I wonder, leader of the Pucu, whose name I believe is Ake, are you aware that by ruling of the Shadow Proclamation it is illegal to hunt or steal Earth artefacts?"

The man whose name was Ake glared at the Doctor.

"Shadow Proclamation," Bella said looking up to the Doctor. "They're the ones in charge of the Judoon, yeah?"

"Correct!" the Doctor smiled, "The same Judoon that kidnapped an entire ten-story building just to catch a plasmavore!"

"Mmm, they're brutal all right." Bella agreed and although the effect was great, the Doctor wasn't altogether pleased that she knew first-hand how rough the Judoon actually were. "How long would this lot get?"

"Hmm, planetary thievery – of course not the actual stealing of a planet, but the stealing _from_ a planet – that'd be life imprisonment for all those involved. Then you've got human misconduct on –"he paused and counted Bella, Tari, Rapau, Quando and Kachiri – "On five counts, so you'd be looking at maybe – I dunno – some kind of death penalty."

He heard Bella gasp beside him so he looked to her and gave her a subtle wink, which obviously relaxed her slightly. It was his indication that he was speaking a load of codswallop.

"So you have one of two choices," he continued, looking back to Ake. "Either let us all go and leave this planet and I will not alert the Shadow Proclamation of your crimes _or_ you can take what you like and I shall explain to the Shadow Proclamation in very amazing and intricate detail all that has occurred."

"We could kill you, you know." Ake said and Bella gasped again.

"No you couldn't," the Doctor said dismissively. "You are treasure hunters, albeit rather rough ones, but you wouldn't kill any of us, especially the females with brains."

Ake seemed to contemplate what the Doctor said before giving one curt nod and the strong men holding them all let them go.

"We shall do as you ask and leave this planet," Ake said, as they all began filling out of the cave glaring at the Doctor. Some of them even made rude and threatening gestures to him, which he chose to ignore.

"Thank you," the Doctor said smiling as Bella rushed forward to untie Quando.

"Thank you, my dear girl!" said Quando happily. "I knew you would figure out how to find this place!"

Bella smiled at him as he shook her hand. She didn't know what to say.

"Alright there Quando?" asked the Doctor who came up to them.

"Oh, yes Doctor, more than fine I would say!" Quando said happily as they too began heading out of the cave. "She is fantastic," he added winking. "Oh the things you will get up to, the planets she will save!"

"No spoilers please, Quando," the Doctor laughed, winking at Bella.

Bella was surrounded by the entire tribe of Wanadi Amazonians because Tari had told everyone how she had managed to find the secret cave. The Doctor smiled and caught her eye. She looked to him and he put his thumb over his shoulder, indicating the TARDIS. She smiled and nodded.

He laughed softly to himself as Bella tried her hardest to get away from her adoring crowd. She really had saved the day, even he admitted that. As he entered the TARDIS, he felt a sudden, sharp pain on the right side of his neck. He reached up to touch it, but he felt his energy draining, his vision darkening and he fell to the floor of the TARDIS, feeling absolutely nothing.

As Bella finally made her way back to the TARDIS she smiled, feeling glad that she could have helped these people.

"I think they're pretty happy we –"she froze as she stepped into the TARDIS and found the Doctor lying flat on his back, just inside the door unconscious.

"Doctor!" she cried, dropping to the ground and kneeling over him, panicking. "Doctor, wake up!" She lifted her hand to feel for a pulse, but found instead something sticking out from his neck. She leant closer to him and examined the other side of his neck where she found one of the poison needles that the Pucu used. Panara had explained to them that these needles were more deadly the longer they were left in the body. Bella gasped and pulled the needle out from his neck quickly and dropped it on the ground beside her. She quickly put her left ear to the Doctor's chest and listened to his heartbeats. There were two, but one was drastically slower than the other.

She jumped up and rushed to the doors, slamming them shut before dialling a number into her mobile phone.

"Jack," she said hurriedly into the phone. "I'm going to need your help!"

* * *

**Next time:**** The Doctor wakes up in a cold, rusting cell to find that he is at Torchwood and that Bella has an impressive ability that the Doctor has seen before...**

* * *

**_Author's note: Sorry it's taken so long for me to post this, I've been flat out with uni, but I am almost finished, so the next story will be up very soon :D I hope you enjoy!_**


	20. Ep5 The People of Planet Nealon

Ep5 The People of Planet Nealon CH1

The Doctor stirred in his sleep before waking up, keeping his eyes tightly shut. Man, did he have one hell of a headache! He moved his head slightly and discovered he had a really stiff neck. _What had he been doing?_ He smelt a nice hot cup of tea beside him, wafting towards him as if it were teasing him. He opened his eyes and took in his strange surroundings.

He was in a small cell-like room that had three, rusty metal walls and one made of thick glass which contained a glass door that stood ajar. _Well, at least he wasn't a prisoner_, he thought to himself, not unless it was a trap… He was laying on what seemed to be a single bed that was hard. Warm soft blankets that he recognised from the beds in the TARDIS were wrapped around him, keeping him warm in the cold cell. There was an out-of-place wooden bed-side-table that had a lamp and the steaming mug of hot tea. Beside this was an uncomfortable looking wooden chair that had his brown pinstriped suit and his long light brown overcoat hung over the back of it. He looked down at himself and found that he had dark blue pyjamas on that again had come from the TARDIS. He moved his feet and discovered that he was no longer wearing his grey converse all-stars.

Someone seemed to be taking really good care of him.

"You're awake!" said someone happily from the door.

"Bella?" the Doctor said somewhat painfully, trying to sit up.

"Don't," Bella said, rushing over to him and gently pushing him back down so that he was lying down again. "You've been out for three days."

The Doctor looked at her dumbfounded. "Three days, where are we?"

"You're at Torchwood, Doctor," Said Captain Jack Harkness who walked into the room and stood behind Bella, who had sunk into the chair.

"But how did we get here?" the Doctor asked, feeling frustrated with himself for not remembering anything. "Where were we?"

"We were in the Amazon, Doctor." Bella said, looking worried. "With the Wanadi Tribe who asked us to help find Quando who had been –"

"-Kidnapped by the Pucu." The Doctor said quickly, remembering now. "I walked into the TARDIS and I felt this pain in my neck –"he sat up quickly and raised his right hand to the side of his neck, where he found a lump.

"It was one of those poison darts Panara told us about," Bella explained quickly, still looking worried. "The ones the Pucu used to kill their enemies."

"We analysed the remaining contents in the dart and we found chemicals that are purely alien. None of them are found on Earth, therefore, we couldn't find out what they actually are." Jack explained to the Doctor. "You must've really ticked someone off, Doctor. The doses of the chemicals would have killed you if they had of been left in your neck any longer."

"So how did we get here if I was unconscious?"

"Bella bought you back," Jack said smiling slightly.

The Doctor looked to her, gaping.

"The landing was a little dodge," she admitted shrugging. "Not the way I had wanted to learn to drive the TARDIS, that's for sure."

"And we had to put out a small-_ish_ fire in the hub when you crashed." Jack said, placing a hand on Bella's shoulder as she flushed. "Don't worry Doctor, the TARDIS is fine."

"I did my best Jack," Bella said hotly. "Considering I've never flown anything before in my life and _your_ instructions were '_Pull the lever, push the button on the consol, make sure the handbrake is off_,' I swear I've never had a more vague set of instructions in my entire life!"

The Doctor stared at Bella, opening and closing his mouth. For perhaps the first time in his life he was completely speechless.

"I'm sorry," Bella said quickly after seeing the look on the Doctor's face. "I didn't know what else to do. Panara said they had no cure or remedies for that poison and I though Jack would be able to help you seeing as all the stuff here has to do with aliens and such… I thought I was doing the right thing…"

_She thought I was angry at her_, the Doctor thought to himself. He actually laughed out loud and grinned up at Bella. "Bella, you just saved my life and you think I'm angry at you for flying me back here!" He said, still laughing. "You are amazing, did you know that?"

Bella looked at him, her worried expression returning as she blushed.

"No one apart from a Time Lord can operate the TARDIS successfully by themselves!" he grinned, "Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!"

Bella looked up to Jack, who seemed to be resisting the urge to laugh, and then back to the Doctor. She sat forward on her chair and put her hand on his chest and pushed him back down, which he allowed.

"I just don't know how you managed it." The Doctor said looking up at Bella as his head hit the pillow.

"Well, that's why I rang Jack." Bella explained gently, still looking at the Doctor with the worried expression. "Together we managed to remember enough to get us back here in one piece." She paused looking a bit awkward. "I don't even know who attacked you. It didn't even occur to me to go outside and have a look."

"Oh, it was probably one of the Pucu," the Doctor shrugged. "I don't think they liked me threatening them."

Bella nodded. "How about I make you a fresh cup of tea?" she asked before standing up and walking out the door, not waiting for an answer.

The Doctor stared after her, bewildered.

"She's been a nervous wreck ever since you got back here." Jack smiled. "I don't think she knows about your special ability."

The Doctor sat up again now that Bella wasn't there to push him back down. "I wouldn't have been able to regenerate if she hadn't of taken that dart out of my neck, Jack."

"She saved your life." Jack said quietly and the Doctor nodded in agreement. "The thing is, Doctor, Bella is an extraordinary girl."

The Doctor frowned, confused as to where this conversation was going.

"And as good as she was in getting you here; the landing was more than '_a little dodge'_"

"What are you trying to say, Jack?" he asked quickly, panicking slightly, his imagination running around wildly.

Jack looked uncomfortable, something that was very uncharacteristic of him. He was also hesitating. "Look, when she opened the door and fell out of the TARDIS doors holding you in her arms, she was an absolute mess; cuts, bruises, you name it, that afternoon she was fine, not a single scratch on her."

"Maybe you just misjudged how bad a state she was in," the Doctor suggested. "We had been running through the Amazon. She could also heal quickly,"

Jack shook his head adamantly. "No, it's more than that. Even you can't heal as fast as she did, and you're a Time Lord!"


	21. Ep5 The People of Planet Nealon CH2

Ep5 the people of planet Nealon CH2

The Doctor chose not to worry about what Jack had told him about Bella. As she wasn't hurt, his thoughts turned to his beloved TARDIS. After getting dressed into his brown suit and overcoat, he followed Jack up a level and they entered what he gathered to be the main area.

"I've been dying to show you around in here for ages," Jack said before stopping.

"You're up!" said Bella, looking down from the platform that had the three computer systems and that led to Jack's office. Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones stood behind her, the latter holding a black and white football under his arms.

"We were about to go out and kick the ball around," Ianto said in his thick Welsh accent. "Would you like to come?"

The Doctor remained silent. He really wanted to go and make sure the TARDIS was okay and see what damage had been done.

"Come on Jack." Gwen said in her Welsh accent.

Jack hesitated before grinning, "Only if I'm on Bella's side."

Bella smiled her dazzling smile at him.

The Doctor looked around and found the TARDIS on the other side of the Hub. He didn't think it looked too bad from the outside, but then the Doctor noted that it had probably been moved. He looked around until he found to his left a large section of charred, burnt metal. _Probably where the 'small-ish fire had been'_, he thought to himself.

"Are you coming, Doctor?" Jack asked, as the other three walked down the stairs to head towards the round, rolling door. Sighing slightly to himself, he followed the four of them without a word.

The Doctor watched Bella and Jack verse Gwen and Ianto in a two-against-two football match in front of Cardiff Bay's Millennium Centre beside the water's edge. He couldn't help but laugh along when the others did something stupid or when one of them scored a 'goal'. He had to admit, that this was all very domestic and it reminded him of spending time with Rose, Jackie and Mickey.

Jack suddenly gave a cry of triumph as he finally scored. He picked Bella up and lifted her over his shoulder and ran around as everyone laughed slightly hysterically. When he finally put her back down, Ianto kicked the football to Gwen, who kicked the ball straight past Jack (who was still basking in his one 'goal' and not paying attention). Bella yelled at Jack for not paying attention before leaping to her right to try and stop the ball from flying into the water. She managed to catch the ball in mid-air before falling back down to the ground in what looked like a painful way.

The Doctor stood up quickly as Bella sat back up grinning.

"I see your cunning plan," she said to Gwen and Ianto who were stifling their laughter behind their hands as she sat up. "I will not end up in the water!"

As Gwen and Ianto laughed loudly, the Doctor moved quickly to her, as he had just noticed a cut on her forehead that was healing at an alarming rate.

"Bella," he said, grabbing her arms as she stood up and Jack moved towards them.

"I'm alright," Bella smiled, looking up to him.

"Bella, you're bleeding," Jack said pointing to her head, as the Doctor stared at her in disbelief whilst the cut on her head became smaller and smaller until all that was left was her blood.

Bella lifted her hand to her head and felt the blood but no graze. "There's nothing there –"

"Bella, you just healed right before my very eyes." The Doctor whispered unbelievingly.

"Don't be daft," Bella said, looking at the Doctor alarmed by the intensity of the expression on his face. "That's impossible –"

"And yet you just did it." Jack said quietly.

Bella looked up to him feeling and looking confused. "Stop mucking around, Jack."

"I'm not," he said shortly, holding out a small pocket mirror he had retrieved from his pocket.

"What's wrong?" called Gwen. "Bella, are you hurt?"

Bella took the mirror from Jack and peered into it. Jack hadn't been lying; there was no scratch or mark on her forehead apart from the now drying blood.

"Doctor," she gasped, looking up to him, looking bewildered.

"C'mon," Jack said, taking her by her hand and beginning to walk back towards the Torchwood Hub.

"No," the Doctor said sternly as he moved in front of Jack to stop him, he too grabbing Bella's other hand. "You aren't going to take her in there and do tests and bio-scans and whatever else it is that you do! Not to her!"

As Jack and the Doctor stood glaring at each other, Bella stood caught in between them both feeling as though she was on the verge of tears. She felt scared and confused and she had no idea what was happening.

Gwen and Ianto approached them looking confused and slightly alarmed at the intensity of the two men's glares.

"Jack," Gwen asked slowly. "What's going on?"

"I don't know and the Doctor here is making sure I don't find out!" Jack answered sourly.

"Well, I thought it might have had something to do with you in the first place!" the Doctor said angrily. "Stolen nano-technology, maybe, 'cause that's what Torchwood does isn't it? Steals alien technology and weaponizes it?"

"That was Torchwood One, Doctor, we don't weaponize alien tech – at least not on the same scale nor for the same purposes! We protect this planet by finding what aliens have left behind to make sure no one uses it wrongly, you know that!" Jack said angrily. "Oh, and nano-technology was so when we first met!"

"Okay, how about we all just calm down," Gwen said as she slowly moved to Bella who had no hope of escaping either man's strong (and slightly painful) hold. "Jack, let her go." She said sternly, trying to loosen Jack's tight grip.

He let go of Bella's hand, still staring at the Doctor. Gwen then turned to the Doctor who also released his grip. Gwen put a supportive arm around Bella and began leading her away from the Doctor and Jack and back towards their main entrance to the Hub.

"C'mon, Ianto will make you a nice cup of tea…" Gwen said gently.

Bella nodded soundlessly and allowed Gwen to steer her in the right direction as Ianto looked to Jack, before heading after them.

"I told you that she healed quickly." Jack said once the other three were out of earshot. Neither the Doctor nor he had moved. "Have you ever seen anything like it?"

The Doctor looked up to him, hearing a change in Jack's voice. He was worried and the Doctor couldn't help but feel the same.

"Not on this planet," he told Jack quietly.

"So she's alien?" he asked, just a little too enthusiastically for the Doctor's liking.

The Doctor glared at him before beginning to follow the others back into the Torchwood Hub. Ianto made tea for Bella and the Doctor (who declined) and sat on the three-seater lounge that was on the level of the three computers and Jack's office, beside Bella as the Doctor paced back and forth, his mind racing. Gwen sat at one of the computers spinning around slowly on her chair and Jack had disappeared to one of the lower levels.

As the Doctor paced deep in thought, he felt Bella's eyes follow him. Once or twice he glanced at her when she had dropped her gaze for a moment and saw her looking down at her hands that were tightly grasping her mug of hot tea. She was pale now and the Doctor saw that she actually looked a bit scared.

He suddenly came to a stop, his hard, thoughtful expression melting away. Feeling the Doctor's gaze upon her, she looked up to find him wearing a worried expression. She gave a very small smile and his face relaxed a bit until Jack came bounding up the stairs.

"Bella, we need to run some tests –"

"I said no, Jack!" the Doctor said angrily.

Jack sighed and rubbed his forehead. "We need to know what it is –"

"Is this a natural curiosity or is it something more?" the Doctor asked, his eyes narrowed.

Jack's eyes flashed dangerously. "I've already told you that we are nothing like the old Torchwood! We need to make sure that Bella isn't in danger –"

"Do I not get a say?" Bella asked quietly before the Doctor could argue with Jack.

"Bella," he said, turning to her and found that she was now standing up.

"Doctor, in case you haven't noticed, the ability to heal as fast as I did is not a normal trait for a human…" she said quietly, giving him a quick flash of her dazzling smile.

The Doctor hesitated before looking to Jack. "If you hurt her, Jack –

"Yeah, like I am going to purposely do that." Jack said sounding hurt. He held out his hand for Bella, who walked forward, past the Doctor and took it.


	22. Ep5 The People of Planet Nealon CH3

Jack and Gwen x-rayed Bella and bio-scanned her, which showed them nothing other than someone who had all the right anatomy and physiology for that of a human being, so they moved on to taking a blood sample, which Bella seemed a little reluctant to do.

Jack sat her on the long, silver autopsy table and moved over to a tray to get the needle ready. "I wish Owen was still around." He said quietly to Gwen, who tightly gripped his arm reassuringly.

"Is this kind of like the hospital wing?" Bella asked nervously as she took in the surroundings, noting that it looked more like an autopsy room as opposed to somewhere that you'd bring willing patients to.

"Actually, we use it more so to do alien autopsies –"Ianto began without thinking before his mind caught up with his mouth. He stopped due to Bella's horrified expression.

"Nice," Jack scowled at him before turning to Bella, holding the needle and a tourniquet. "How are you with needles?"

Bella shrugged. "How are you at giving them?" she asked before the Doctor took her hand reassuringly and Jack smiled and tied the tourniquet around her right arm. As Jack picked up the needle, the Doctor felt Bella's grip tighten.

"Try and relax, Bella." Jack said quietly, his voice calming her slightly.

The Doctor scoffed and Bella looked up to him trying to hide her smile from Jack. She gasped suddenly and she held onto the Doctor's hand even tighter than before as Jack put the needle into her arm as gently as he could manage. She had never really liked getting injections or having blood taken. The nurses and doctors always had trouble finding veins or the actual needle would break off in her arm.

"Jack!" she gasped, as the pain in her right arm increased at an alarming rate. She focused on the Doctor's face, whose deep brown eyes never left hers.

"I don't believe it!" Jack whispered sounding astonished.

"What?" the Doctor asked sharply, not breaking his gaze with Bella.

Bella bit her lip to stop herself from crying out loud in pain as it doubled, sending sharp, shooting jabs down her arm and into her fingertips.

"It's like her body is defending itself from the needle – It won't let me extract any more blood."

"How much did you get?" the Doctor asked, finally looking up to Jack.

"Jack, it's hurting me!" Bella cried, letting go of the Doctor's hand to pull the needle out of her arm quickly, her eyes bristling with tears.

Jack looked to her. "Bella, I am so sorry – I didn't realise –"

She held up the needle to him. "Just tell me you don't have to do it again."

Jack opened his mouth, hesitating, looking at the amount of blood in the needle.

"That's more than enough, Jack." The Doctor said, taking the needle from Bella. "I think I can narrow the search down. Bella, where are your parents from?" he asked quickly, looking down to Bella.

"Uh, Dad was born in London before his parents moved back down to Bristol to take over the family's _estate_."

"And your mother?" he pressed gently.

"I – I'm not sure," she said looking down. "She died when I was born and dad never really spoke about her. Well, he might of, but I don't remember all that much, seeing as I was five when he died… sorry if I'm not much help…"

"Now, that's not your fault," the Doctor said gently.

She looked up to him and gave a small smile. The Doctor gave her a reassuring look before turning and walking up the stairs to the three computers and Jack promptly followed him.

"I thought you were all against these tests like twenty minutes ago," Jack said quietly.

"I think I know what Bella might be," he told him quietly.

"Alien?" Jack asked.

"Not completely," the Doctor admitted ruefully. "Her father was born in London –"

"How do we know that for certain? He could have crashed landed here or something and became stranded."

"He had a _family estate_, Jack." The Doctor said, stopping him midsentence. "And besides, what did all your x-ray and bio-scan machines say?"

"That she had the anatomy and physiology of a human." Jack admitted slowly. "But so what? Look at me, for example and look at what I can do. All my scans have come up normal, too!"

"But you are not alien, are you? Rose made you who you are; she brought you back from the dead and made you a fixed point in time. Still completely human but Bella has to be only _half_ human… If she is what I think she is it will show up in her blood."

Jack looked at him for a moment until he decided that he wasn't going to get any more information out of the Doctor before taking the needle off him and began running tests. Bella and Ianto kicked the football to one another down where they had been before and Gwen sat on the lounge and watched the Doctor pace back and forth impatiently while Jack sat at the computer that had once belonged to Owen Harper just staring at the screen. It would have had to of been at least half an hour before Jack suddenly grabbed the Doctor's arm as he paced past him.

The Doctor instantly looked to the computer screen where the words **Unidentified Non-Human Life form** was flashing in large red letters. Jack pressed the enter button on the keyboard and the results from Bella's blood test popped up.

"I was right," the Doctor said quietly staring at the screen in front of him.

"Doctor, what does this mean?" Jack asked looking at the writing on the screen intently. "What makes her heal so fast?"

"There are these enzymes – special, unique enzymes – that travel in her blood. They are a catalyst for cell regeneration – not like my regeneration, Jack – it's just like your average humans cell regeneration only a hundred – a million – no, a billion times faster." The Doctor explained very quickly before turning to Bella who had come halfway up the stairs and was looking at him somewhat fearfully. "Bella is half human, half Nealonian."

Bella's face went white as she stood on the stairs with Ianto behind her, looking concerned that she might fall backward.

"And what does that mean?" she asked in barely a whisper.

"You're half alien, Bella."

There was a stunned and shocked silence, as Bella stared at the Doctor, her brain ceasing to function properly as everyone stared at her.

"But I was born in Bath," she gasped weakly.

The Doctor moved forward as Ianto put a hand on her back. Both of them were thinking along the same lines. She looked as though she was about to collapse. Her gaze didn't move when the Doctor walked forward, her eyes looking at the exact spot where the Doctor's had been and he knew that she wasn't actually seeing anything.

"Are you sure?" she said as her voice shook. "I – I don't understand how this – it just can't – it isn't possible –"

"I'm sure, Bella." The Doctor told her gently. "Would you like to find out for yourself though?"

She blinked and looked up to him.

"I could take you to planet Nealon if you wanted to find out more about everything."

Bella thought about this for a moment. "My mother…"

"I believe she comes from there, yes." He told her. "You might have family there still."

She swallowed and nodded. "I would like to go there, please."

The Doctor suddenly felt irrational fear move swiftly through him. What happens if he takes her to Nealon and Bella decides she wants to stay there? What happens if they find that she does have family on Nealon and she leaves him to travel by himself, again? What if she wanted to leave him? _No_, the Doctor thought to himself, _if Bella wants to stay with her family on Nealon that was perfectly fine_. She had every right to stay with her family if she wanted too; there was nothing wrong with that was there?

_Yes_, was the Doctor's honest answer to that question, for he had become quite fond of Bella in their short time together. She was a strong, brave, honest and loyal person and he felt that life in the TARDIS suited her quite well and they made quite a good team. He sighed inwardly to himself. He didn't want to lose her too.

"Let's go then," he said, hoping his voice didn't portray his feelings.


	23. Ep5 The People of Planet Nealon CH4

The Doctor followed Bella and Jack out of the TARDIS to find themselves in the middle of some kind of courtyard. The ground seemed to be made of pale stone and there was a water fountain with long green grass surrounding it. He looked up and found the green sky and the orange sun shining down on them. Bella looked up as well and her mouth fell open in amazement.

"A green sky," She said bewildered.

People moved around them, the women being clothed in long dresses that seemed to originate from the Saxon era on Earth and the men were in long pants, leather shoes that wrapped around their feet and they had white, light material shirts. They were all in earthy colours (lots of greens and browns) and they hardly paid any attention to the newcomers.

"The Nealonian," the Doctor said quietly to Bella and Jack. "Amazingly advanced, extremely bright – right up there at the top half of the list, nowhere near the Time Lords, but they do try their hardest."

"They remember the Time Lords?" Jacks asked.

"A lot of people remember the Time Lords, thank you Jack. I do recall you had heard of us."

"I had heard of you lot as a legend, Doctor, I didn't know you actually existed."

The Doctor shook his head. "Anyway, the Nealonians also have the second longest life span in the universe _and_ the ability to heal from almost any injury."

"Like what I can do," Bella said quietly, looking up to the Doctor.

"Isabella?"

Bella looked in front of her as an elderly man wearing a small silver crown and a deep red cloak with gold embroided into it ran towards them.

"Isabella, is that you?" the man called hopefully. "Have you returned to us?"

Bella felt her cheeks redden as the man came to a stop in front of them.

"Isabella?"

"No, I'm sorry, I'm not Isabella," Bella said quietly as she observed the old man's facial features. There were some distinct similarities between the two of them. They had the same coloured eyes, the same shaped nose and mouth. Could this be her real grandfather? "Isabella was my mother…"

Bella saw the Doctor look to her quickly out of the corner of her eye. He bore a look that she didn't recognise.

"Your – your mother?" the older man said shakily.

"We might not be talking about the same person –"

"Dear child, there is no doubt in my mind that we are indeed talking about the same person." The old man said. "You are the spitting image of her…" he said emotionally, just looking over Bella's face.

A younger man, who was dressed in silver armour, walked up to them and spoke quietly to the old man.

"My lord, I rather believe that it would be more appropriate if you continued this chat inside." He said. "People have begun to stop and stare."

The old man, who seemed rather important, nodded. "Please, come with me."

Bella walked in between the Doctor and Jack feeling nervous. They followed the man and his guard into what seemed like a main hall and they didn't stop until they reached the other end of the hall where the older man sat in what Bella thought to be a throne.

"My name is Manuel, Lord of planet Nealon." The older man said. "What are your names?"

"This is Captain Jack," Bella said indicating Jack on her left. "And this is the Doctor and I am Bella."

"Humans?" asked Manuel, and Bella picked up on the slightest hint of disgust in his voice.

"No," the Doctor said as Jack said "Yes,"

Manuel instantly looked to the Doctor. "Where are you from then, Doctor?"

The Doctor hesitated. "Gallifrey," he said quietly.

"Aha," Manuel said smiling slightly, sitting more rigid in his chair now, "The last of the Time Lords. I have long wished to make your acquaintance. It was such a terrible loss for the Universe, Doctor, I am deeply apologetic."

The Doctor said nothing and tried to look indifferent as Manuel looked to Bella beside him.

"Where is Isabella now? Where is my daughter?"

Bella's mouth fell slightly, the shock making her speechless for a moment. _He didn't even know that his own daughter had died_, she thought to herself. "She's – uh – well, I –"

"Spit it out girl!" Manuel said impatiently, frowning at Bella.

"She's dead," Bella said a slight tremor in her voice before the Doctor took hold of her right hand.

"Dead?" repeated Manuel looking shocked, "how?"

"She died in childbirth," the Doctor told him as Bella seemed unable to speak.

"How long ago?" Manuel asked horrified.

"Eighteen years," the Doctor said quietly.

Manuel seemed to process this for a few moments, before his empty, sad expression turned to an angry one. "Where is your father?" he ordered.

"He's dead too," Bella sat flatly and the Doctor turned to see an empty expression flash across her face. "Died five years later,"

"How?" asked Manuel.

"A car accident," Bella told him looking down to the floor. "He died on impact."

"Well, I cannot say that news of his death upsets me, it would seem that it actually has the reverse effect on me for I am glad." Manuel told them. Jack opened his mouth, frowning somewhat angrily, to tell him off, but Manuel continued over the top of him. "So what brings you all here?"

"Bella is your granddaughter," the Doctor said, not even bothering to be polite any more. He didn't think much of this man after the comments he had made about Bella's father. "She is half Nealonian."

"Oh, half Nealonian you say?" Manuel asked seeming interested enough. "What trait does she posses?"

"_Bella_ possesses the ability to heal quickly, though not quite as quickly as you do." The Doctor explained. "Her mind is also exceptionally bright."

Bella looked up to him looking confused. "What -?"

"What is 64257.5 divided by 89?" the Doctor asked Bella, who, without hesitation, answered "721.99438202247."

"See," the Doctor said smiling slightly. "That kind of mental ability is beyond the human mind. Even geniuses like Isaac Newton and Einstein wouldn't have a hope in hell at doing a sum like that in their heads _and_ give the answer to _eleven_ decimal places. Bella is absolutely brilliant – and I don't normally say that because I'm generally in the room!" he added, winking at Bella who smiled slightly as her cheeks gained some colour.

"And she is modest," the Doctor continued noting on Bella's blushing, which deepened in colour as he said it. "Something you lot should probably work on a bit more."

"Oh yes, and a Time Lord can talk." Manuel said coolly. "I always thought of them as a rather pompous race. Always a bit too peaceful, if you asked me."

"And yet here you all were, spending all your long lives trying to be exactly like us." The Doctor said shortly. "I think our peacefulness was the only thing you didn't try and copy did you?"

Bella looked up to the Doctor feeling slightly taken aback. He never talked about the Time Lords or Gallifrey and she never asked him too. It always seemed to cause him pain when he spoke about his past, and understanding how that felt to a certain degree, she never pushed him too.

"And maybe that is what kept this race alive." Manuel said quietly before standing up and turning to Bella again. "Come child; let me show you what you were born into. You're friends may join us if they wish."

Bella followed Manuel forward somewhat eagerly as did Jack and they both linked arms smiling slightly.

"Mmhmm," the guard said approvingly as he watched Bella with a hungry expression on his face. "Your friend is absolutely gorgeous, even if she is only half Nealon. I must admit that I missed my chance with her mother, but maybe I will get lucky with her instead!"

The Doctor's head suddenly filled with rage and contempt for this man and he fought the somewhat overpowering urge to punch him in the face. As he realised what he was struggling not to do his anger vanished suddenly and was replaced by shock.

_Where had that come from_, he asked himself. When someone said something he didn't agree with he didn't normally have to fight the urge to punch them. Yes, he would feel angry and he would probably insult them in some manner or form, but he would never result to violence.

"Doctor, are you coming?" Bella asked.

He looked to her. She had stopped and turned back towards him, no longer linked-armed with Jack. The guard that had infuriated him stood closest to her, looking her up and down like she was some kind of race horse.

"Uh, no," the Doctor said, his jaw tight. "I will wait for you both in the TARDIS."

Bella's face fell. "Oh," she said, and he heard disappointment in her voice. "Okay then, are you sure?"

"Yeah," he said. "Have fun!" he added, forcing light heartedness into his voice, which it seemed, judging her expression, Bella picked up on.

She opened her mouth to say something to him, but the guard took a step closer to her.

"Come, there is so much still to see here and your grandfather is a busy man." The guard said holding out his arm for her, which she took hesitantly, casting a look at the Doctor before allowing herself to be led out.

Jealousy now filled the Doctor's mind and stomach and he tried to get a hold of himself. He turned around and began heading out of the hall and back to the TARDIS. _What was going on_, he thought to himself. Why was he suddenly becoming all jealous of the men whom Bella would meet? _Well, it wasn't happening suddenly_, he thought. He'd been getting jealous and over protective towards Bella a lot lately. _But that was just because of everything that Bella has gone through in her life_.

_No it wasn't_.

He'd been drawn to her when they first met by her ability to handle situations that 'normal' people would freak out very loudly about and when she had turned him down, he'd been very disappointed. He had then risked everything to save her from the Judoon (thinking that they were, at first, Shadow Proclamation Judoon). He had told her a lot about himself and his past and even the companions he had had over the long years. Bella knew more about him than Martha Jones had ever learned and even Rose. His first experience of being jealous was with Tari, who had defiantly had a thing for Bella. The last time he had felt even remotely jealous was with Rose –

He came to a sudden, abrupt stop.

He was falling for Bella, just like he had done with Rose. He couldn't believe he hadn't realised what was happening and he suddenly felt scared.

He's only just lost Rose again. He'd gotten her back and lost her again on the same day. Not only that, but he had left her in an alternative universe with the human him and their own bit of the TARDIS so they could grow their own, but that version of him could tell Rose what he could not; those three impossible words.

It had been so painful to say goodbye to her, because he certainly didn't want to. He did love her; he just couldn't tell her that. And if he thought that leaving Rose behind was painful, what he had to do to Donna to save her life was excruciating.

Everyone he touched – Rose, Martha, Donna and even Jack – their lives were destroyed all because of him.

"What have I done?" he said to himself. He couldn't go through with it again. Falling in love and not being able to do anything about it, not being able to tell Bella how he felt. He would lose her, that he was absolutely sure, for he would out live her no matter what, and the pain that would be associated to losing her –

He stopped himself and shook his head. He couldn't let her get close to him and he knew how he could do it and to his horror, the thought of them being apart already cause him pain. He would have to break the promise he had made to her a few days ago already. But what helped him was that he knew Bella deserved better than him and he wouldn't stand in the way… She deserved someone who could tell her that they loved her…


	24. Ep5 The People of Planet Nealon CH5

"I hope I did not offend the Time Lord." Manuel said to Bella, who moved uncomfortably as she walked beside him.

She had heard how forced his last sentence had been and she had indeed thought that her grandfather's comments had offended the Doctor, maybe even upset him. The last thing she felt like doing was to talk to a man she had only just met about it. It was not that she disliked him; she had just disagreed with the majority of things that had come out of his mouth so far.

"I think you may have slightly." Bella said quietly and the corners of Jack's mouth twitched.

"Well, that was never my intention," Manuel said and Bella could hear the honesty in his voice. "It's just the Time Lords and ourselves never really saw eye-to-eye. We were never enemies, yet we were never really the best of friends either."

Bella nodded and continued following him side-by-side with Jack, looking up to the strange green sky. She couldn't quite believe it. The first alien planet the Doctor takes her to turns out to be not-so-alien to her at all. Her mother was born here, on this planet and she just couldn't get her head around that fact.

"You know, Manuel will ask you to stay," Jack said very quietly to Bella as Manuel moved ahead of them to show them his home. "What will you say? Will you stay here now that you have family?"

"Not likely, Jack!" she said quietly, grinning. "I haven't had a family in thirteen years; I don't suddenly need one now. Besides, I am very happy just travelling with the Doctor and occasionally you."

"He already asked you, didn't he?" Jack asked, smiling.

Bella smiled at him. "I've already turned Manuel down. I don't think I would have liked it here. Their ideas seem very backwards. They have advanced weaponry, yet they are living in mud-brick houses. It's like they are living in the sixteenth century!"

Jack laughed loudly as they were led around the corner of the mud building and they saw the Doctor leaning on the side of the TARDIS waiting for them.

"Bella, may I have a word?" Manuel asked and Bella nodded.

"I just want to find out a bit about my mother and how she ended up on Earth, because, frankly, it's all a bit odd." Bella said to Jack quietly. "Don't leave without me!" She grinned.

"As if we would!" Jack said, pushing her playfully before she turned and moved to her grandfather. Laughing he turned and walked towards the TARDIS.

Bella turned and looked back to the blue police box and her eyes met with the Doctor's briefly before he entered the TARDIS. Something about the Doctor's expression worried her. He had looked deeply sadden and full of pain before going into the TARDIS and it unsettled her.

"Bella," Manuel said. "Is there nothing I can do to convince you to stay? You would be crowned princess, heir to the thrown and likely to get it one day. I am very old; I'd have to be similar in age to your Doctor."

Bella shook her head. "I'm really sorry, but I have to go."

"You do not belong with a _Time Lord_, girl!" Manuel said, full of angst. "He is the only one left, the _last_ Time Lord, everyone else is dead!"

"What are you trying to say?" Bella asked hotly.

"He is dangerous," Manuel said. "Being with him is dangerous! I have already lost my only daughter –"

"Just because I supposedly look like her doesn't mean I am anything like her!" Bella said. "I _want_ to travel with the Doctor, so I _will_ travel with him and if anything _should_ ever happen to me, it will not be his fault!" She turned on her heal and began striding furiously towards the TARDIS.

"Oh, my dear girl," Manuel smiled solemnly as he watched Bella go. "You are exactly like your mother…"

Jack closed the doors to the TARDIS and looked to the Doctor up at the control panel and to Jack he seemed to be deep in thought.

"Bella won't be a minute," Jack said. "Are you alright?"

The Doctor looked up to him and Jack instantly knew something was very wrong.

"Doctor, what is it?"

"Its better this way…" the Doctor said quietly and emotionally. "She'll be safe here." He said pausing. "I'm taking you home Jack…"

Before Jack could do, say or even process what the Doctor had just said, the Doctor pulled one of the many levers and the klaxon fired up. Jack stood horrified on the spot just inside the closed doors. They were leaving Bella behind!

Bella stopped in her tracks, her arm still reaching out to the door handle that was now dematerialising right in front of her. A great wind pushed her backward a few steps before the TARDIS disappeared completely and no sound of the klaxon could be heard.

She felt a tear fall down her cheek as she realised what the Doctor had done to her, feeling a devastation that she had never felt before.

He'd left her behind.

She felt her grandfather stand behind her and place his hand on her shoulder as she looked down, allowing herself to let out a sob.

* * *

**Next time: Bella learns to cope after the Doctor's and Jack's shock departure and the more time that passes, unnatural occurences begin to occur that puts her on edge...**


	25. Ep6 Abandoned CH1

**Author's Notes: So I wasn't origionally going to post this as part of the series because I wrote it for me so I knew what was going on, but then I thought that seeing as I wrote it, and I used it to form the next episode that I may aswell share it with you :P. **

**I should give a slight warning that one of the scenes in this chapter may be quite confronting. It's not very nice... A scene for mature beings, possibly. Nothing terrible happens, but it could have so I thought I'd give you the heads up. **

**I hope you enjoy the episode :)**

* * *

Ep6 Abandoned CH1

Bella stopped in her tracks, her arm still reaching out to the door handle that was now dematerialising right in front of her. A great wind pushed her backward a few steps before the TARDIS disappeared completely and no sound of the klaxon could be heard.

She felt a tear fall down her cheek as she realised what the Doctor had done to her, feeling a devastation that she had never felt before.

He'd left her behind.

She felt her grandfather stand behind her and place his hand on her shoulder as she looked down, allowing herself to let out a sob.

Bella rolled over onto her left side, keeping her eyes shut. She had, yet again, dreamt of the day that her best friend had abandoned her on Planet Nealon. She sighed deeply. That had been a year ago today. She opened her eyes and looked around her little, one-roomed hut.

She felt pretty proud of herself, seeing as she had practically built the whole thing on her own. The only things she did not make were the table, the two chairs and her bed, everything else was her own craftsmanship.

She sat up in her bed and leant against the wall, deep in thought. She couldn't quite believe that she'd been here a whole year. Three hundred and sixty-five days. She wondered what the Doctor had done in all that time; wondered who he'd saved, where he'd gone and what he'd seen. She wondered if Captain Jack was with him still or if the Doctor had found someone else to travel with. She always tried not to think of that last thought, because no matter what angle she looked at it from, it still hurt like hell.

She thought back to the day it had happened and gave a slight grimace. She should have seen it coming. Since he had found out what Bella really was, the Doctor had gone uncharacteristically quiet. Apart from defending the Time Lords, he didn't really say anything; he wasn't normally one to pass up a free tour either, opting instead to go and wait moodily by the TARDIS. At the time she had thought he had done that because of what her grandfather had had said about the Time Lords, which she wouldn't have blamed him had it been the case. She wondered if the Doctor had left her here because of the fact that the Time Lords and the Nealonians never got along or because it was the opportune moment to get rid of her. With that thought, she wondered painfully if Jack had known that the Doctor was going to do it.

She shook her head as she got out of bed and opened the curtains beside her bed, directly opposite the front door. _Jack had not had anything to do with it_, she told herself firmly, looking out across the empty fields behind her hut. She turned around and picked up her white cloth shirt before she pulled off her night dress, her thoughts drifting deep into her mind, where she rarely allowed herself to look.

She had one small hope that she clung onto; the fact that maybe, just maybe, it had all been a misunderstanding, that maybe the Doctor had thought that she had entered the TARDIS when Jack had, that maybe something was wrong the TARDIS and they couldn't land. She could never stop hoping.

After pulling on her long pants, she sat down on her bed and put on her black Converse All-Stars. She refused to wear a dress like all the other women, but she had reached an _agreement_ to wear what she was now with her grandfather as long as she could keep wearing her Converses.

She moved to the table as she pulled on a leather vest and tied it up, making her feel like some kind of pirate and poured the last of the water into a glass and cut herself a piece of fresh bread and took a bite. She had no idea what she was going to do for the day apart from avoiding her grandfather, who had lately taken to insisting that she should be crowned.

She took one last bite of the bread and picked up the water jug and carried it out into the warm morning sunlight. She headed towards the centre of the township (Bella's hut being right on the very edge, near a deep forest) towards the main water well. The people she passed glanced at her, but generally paid no attention to her, which she didn't mind overly much.

As she sat the stone jug on the ground beside the well and grabbed the rope to pull the bucket up, she glanced upwards at the sky, forgetting as usual that it was a soft green, not blue.

"Hello,"

Bella gave a start and looked to her left. "Samuel," she said stiffly, putting more effort into pulling the rope now that a normal height man who (had he of been human) would have been in his mid-to-late twenties, was standing beside her, a hungry expression on her face. He had been the guard that Bella had first met with the Doctor and Jack. "Aren't you meant to be following my grandfather around?"

"I have the day off," he smiled, speaking in English so that Bella could understand him, seeing as the TARDIS was no longer here to translate for her.

_Great_, she said to herself. "Well, don't you have to go shoot things?" she asked him darkly as she reached out and grabbed the bucket and poured water into her jug.

Samuel chuckled, reminding Bella of Gaston from _Beauty and the Beast_, thinking that that would have to be the best description for him.

"I thought I could spend the day with you." He said, watching her closely.

"I don't think so," Bella said, throwing the bucket noisily back down the well. "I would rather spend the entire day sorting through a dung pile for a needle."

Samuel frowned as Bella picked up her jug and walked away. He quickly caught up to her smiling.

"You shouldn't play hard to get," he grinned down at her.

She stopped and turned to him, being reminded painfully of her best friend's brother. "Look, I am not _playing_ anything. I am not interested you in the slightest and if I am completely honest with you, there is nothing even remotely good about you. You are sleazy, creepy and frankly I cannot stand you, so please, just leave me alone!"

She left him standing with his face contorted with rage. She felt better that she had told him how she felt, so now he might finally get the hint and back off. She re-entered her hut and put the water jug on the table before moving over to the fireplace to get the wood basket. She turned around and let out a startled cry.

Samuel had obviously followed her into her hut for he now stood in front of her, glaring furiously.

"I didn't say you could come in here," Bella managed to say before glancing down to her right where she saw a metal fire poker.

"You need to be _very_ careful about what you say to me, Bella Lumic." He said dangerously as he moved forward and pushed her into the wall behind her (which was really the fireplace), grabbing hold of her arms. "You're lucky you grandfather likes you so much, otherwise the rest of us, especially Elder Fode, might've taken matters into our own hands, filthy half-breed!" he spat.

Bella scowled as she struggled to free herself.

"Now, you are going to do everything I want you too –"

Bella kicked him in the groin and he let her go and doubled over in pain. He made to grab her again but she clenched her fist and punched him on the side of his face. As Samuel fell to the ground, Bella grabbed her right hand and gave a cry of pain; it felt like she had broken some of the bones in her hand.

Still grasping her hand, she left the hut and turned left, heading towards the forest and not looking back.


	26. Ep6 Abandoned CH2

Ep6 Abandoned CH2

At around noon, Bella finally stopped walking and sunk onto a nearby rock. She felt quite upset as it had finally hit her that the Doctor wasn't coming back. If he had really been her friend, he would have never left her with that vile man. The Doctor had broken the promise he had made in the Amazon. He really had abandoned her.

She let out a pain-filled sob and covered her face in her hands, her right having healed hours ago. This was the first time she had cried properly since her very first night on Nealon and it was probably the most she had ever cried in her life.

It took her a while to realise over the noise of her sobbing, that she could hear singing. Becoming suddenly silent, she wiped her eyes free of tears and looked around the small clearing she was currently sitting in. The large trees surrounded her and the soft orange sunlight filtered through the golden leaves. The forest floor was littered with dead leaves and tall mushrooms and weeds and grass grew up around them. She frowned and wondered where the singing was coming from. She stood up and began walking around in circles a few times until the song became louder. She followed quickly, looking out for any sign of who was singing. Suddenly a large, gaping hole appeared out of nowhere in the ground.

Bella cried out in surprise and grabbed hold of a bush as she slid into the hole, her feet dangling as she held onto the bush for dear life. Panting, she managed to pull herself out again, to sit staring at the hole. It looked like some kind of human-sized animal trap. She leant forward and looked into the deep, smooth-edged hole, noting that she had not been the first person to fall into it.

"Are you okay?" she cried out, seeing the person's legs move slightly. "Can you move? If you can stand up I'll be able to get you out of there!"

The person in the hole rolled over, making Bella gasp quietly; it wasn't a person, it was an alien. She could see how one could get confused however, because apart from the alien's head, everything else looked human. The creature's skin was a greyish brown colour, its eyes were slanted at a forty-five degree angle and its nose looked like a squid.

"Help... me..." the creature gasped painfully, a round ball lighting up when he spoke.

Bella gasped again and jumped to her feet. "I'll find something that you can grab onto!"

She ran to a tree near her that had a long dead branch and pulled it along the ground and eased it into the hole. "Grab the branch and hold on," Bella said quickly. "I'll pull you out!"

Once the creature had grabbed the branch, Bella pulled it backwards until she saw a gloved hand emerge. She moved forward and grabbed the creatures arm and pulled him up. Bella stumbled a few paces backwards because she was now holding the weight of the creature before they both fell to the ground.

Bella held him as he held onto her left hand, not daring to let go as he shook violently. He rested his head on her right knee as her eyes took in his strange appearance and she wiped black blood of his forehead, which she noticed seemed to calm him down.

"You're alright," she said softly. "I've got you now."

The creature's slanted eyes opened slightly and he gazed at Bella, who realised that the singing had changed, and that it seemed to be within her own head.

"I don't know where you come from, so I won't be able to take you home until you're better." Bella told him. "So you're going to have to come home with me."

She waited for an objection, a waiver of mistrust, but she got none, so she helped the six foot alien to his feet and began to half drag it back to her hut.


	27. Ep6 Abandoned CH3

**_Author's note: Bella has a deep and meaningful chat to her grandfather, who shows a softer side. Probably my favorite part of the series so far, I hope you enjoy it :)_**

* * *

Ep6 Abandoned CH3

Bella knocked on her grandfather's door late that night and she heard him mumble something in Nealonian before opening the door.

"Bella," he said, a look of concern flashing across his face. "Are you okay? Has Samuel bothered you again after I explicitly forbade him to?"

"No – how did you –"

"I went to visit you earlier and found him unconscious on your floor," he said smiling ever-so-slightly. "Looks like you've got a nasty uppercut. You get that from me!" he added proudly.

Bella shook her head; she didn't have time for this. "There is this creature in my house and I don't know what it is –"

"Is it of the eight-legged variety?" he asked seriously, rolling up his red sleeves.

"No," Bella gasped, realising he thought she wanted him to kill something. "Just come and tell me what it is so I can help it!"

She led him moodily back to her hut as he grinned fondly behind her. She opened the door for him and he walked in and said "ah,"

"You know what he is?" she asked him eagerly as she walked to the side of her bed and looked down to the alien who was in it.

"He's an Ood," her grandfather told her quietly. "They come from the Ood-sphere in the Horsehead Nebula. We used to have some until they became infected with Red-Eye, so we set the rest of them free."

"They were slaves..." Bella assumed and Manuel nodded.

"Where did you find him?"

"In the middle of the forest down some trap hole." She told him. "Is that _your_ lot's doing?" she asked darkly.

"No," he said sharply. "We want nothing to do with them."

"Must mean that there are others on your planet..." Bella said moodily.

A stubborn silence followed and Manuel went to sit on the steps outside and eventually Bella went to join him, both of them looking up to the bright stars.

"How did my father get here?" Bella asked cautiously. It was a touchy subject and no one would ever give her answers.

"Bella," Manuel protested, his voice sounding tired.

"I am sick of not knowing!" Bella exclaimed quickly. "You won't tell me anything! I just want to know what they were like, why they left here, _how_ my father possibly even got here –"

"She was just like you." He said quietly, avoiding her gaze. "She had an amazing ability to see good in everyone. She was strong and hated violence and she was the stubbornest thing I had ever encountered until you came along. She had this fiery passion that brought everyone around her to life. When your father crash landed here, she helped him heal, looked after him then helped him rebuild his primitive space vessel that looked as though it had come from a Cybermen factory."

"You didn't like him because of his spaceship?" Bella whispered, shocked that she had finally gotten so much out of him. She really liked the sound of her mother.

"I didn't like him because he filled my daughter's mind with ideas of leaving this planet and travelling with him back to Earth." Manuel said, and Bella thought that it sounded like how the Doctor did things. "She was easy enough to persuade, he never had to charm her too."

"Has the thought ever occurred to you that they didn't mean to fall in love?" Bella asked seriously. "That my mother was a good man and didn't put weapons before advancements in things that people actually needed as opposed to weapons for warfare? Have you not noticed how backwards this place is? Primitive housing yet advanced weapons; you lot haven't got a thing on the human race!"

Manuel looked to his granddaughter with tired eyes. "Your father was nothing like the Time Lord." He said, making Bella's heart throb painfully. "He was just like us, only human; just as vain, just as scheming, always coming up with plans to make things better for him, not caring who he eliminated in the process."

"I don't believe you," Bella whispered, not aware that she was crying.

"That's what Isabella said," he said softly. "All those years ago... She didn't listen to me either."

"You can't live your life through someone else," she managed to say. "Everyone dreams of travelling the world – or universe – especially with someone that you love."

Manuel scoffed. "Of course _you_ would have fallen for the Time Lord."

Bella felt her face burn. "I did not," she said childishly, which was a true statement. She fell for him as a best friend, the very best you could possibly have – or rather, had.

"You will one day though," Manuel said sadly and looked up to the sky.

Bella frowned, wondering how she could possibly fall in love with a man who she would never see again. She looked up to the sky. "What were they like, the Time Lords?"

Manuel sighed. "They were awe-inspiring, Bella." He told her truthfully. "I know I told the Doctor that I thought of them as pompous fools, but that was my ego talking. I have always admired them. The Doctor was right in saying that we tried to copy them, but we never succeeded, obviously." He pulled a pair of high powered binoculars that were actually like two miniature telescopes they were that powerful and handed them to Bella. "Over that way, look for a yellow-orange coloured planet."

Bella gaped at him. She hadn't realised that they had been so incredibly close to Gallifrey, the Doctor's home planet. She raised the binoculars up to her eyes and peered through them, scanning the dark night sky for a planet among the stars, which, eventually, she found.

"Gallifrey..." she whispered in awe, staring at the planet that looked like (through the binoculars) it was the size of a small yellow-orange coin.

"Its two hundred and fifty light trillion light years away from Earth, you know." Manuel said smiling, looking at his granddaughter's blissful expression. "To put that into perspective for you, we are currently one hundred and fifty million away."

"These are some really good binoculars..." Bella muttered, making Manuel laugh. "I can't believe it's still there. Have you ever been?"

He shook his head. "In the capitol and in the Giant Dome that is the Citadel, there is what is known as the Eye of Harmony. The Eye disallows anyone who is not a Time Lord to approach the planet. This, in a way, allowed the Time Lords to maintain their status of absolute neutrality; to watch and observe the rest of the Universe without interfering. There were, of course, the few who did _not_ follow this ruling."

"Bella smiled slightly, thinking again of the Doctor. "They do know when to not interfere though," she said, making Manuel smile too.

"Apparently Gallifrey has a burnt orange sky," Manuel told her.

She looked back up to the night sky, wishing she had of asked the Doctor what it had looked like. She had always planned to; she had just thought that she had all the time in the world. _Proves how wrong you can be_. She gave a heavy sigh and tried to stop thinking about the most wondrous man in the Universe, and gave the binoculars back.

"Have you ever thought that maybe he became scared?" Manuel asked gently, watching his granddaughter closely, who looked up to him startled.

"Scared of what?"

"Scared of caring too much," he continued. "You have to realise that his is a very lonely existence."

Bella looked down, biting her lip. No, she hadn't thought of that. She knew that others had travelled with the Doctor before her, that was common sense to her considering that he was nine hundred and six years old. There had been a woman called Rose and a woman called Donna, and she remember the look of pain on the Doctor's face when he had spoken briefly about Donna and she felt suddenly upset with herself for purely thinking about herself and how she felt about the whole situation.

Manuel saw a look of realisation move across Bella's face and stood up. "There is food for the Ood in the store house up in the loft. Tell them I sent you to get rid of it and if they don't believe you, tell them to come and see me in the morning."

She sat momentarily stunned before what her grandfather had just said finally sunk in. As he walked away, Bella called "Why didn't you go after my mother?"

Manuel froze and slowly turned back around to Bella. Word had reached us that the last of the Time Lords had become awfully fond of planet Earth, so we didn't think that he would appreciate if we unleased war onto it..."

Bella stared at him, realising what he meant. Her grandfather sacrificed his daughter so that the last Time Lord left in the Universe didn't have to lose another race, another place that he could, if he wanted to, call home...

"You should have told him." Bella said emotionally. "That would have meant the Universe to him."

Manuel's jaw seemed clamped shut as his pride began to get in the way. "I don't think I would have been able to do what he did. He is a much greater man than I will ever be."

"Grandfather," she started to say, standing up.

"Goodnight, Bella." He said, turning and walking away towards his home at the other end of the village, leaving Bella standing alone in the dark, a few tears escaping her eyes as she looked back up to the ever burning planet of Gallifrey.


	28. Ep6 Abandoned CH4

Ep6 Abandoned CH4

Bella raided the store house and took (or dragged) a large sack full of food for the Ood back to her hut and began to nurse the poor creature back to health. She sewed his grey clothes back together so that they would at least keep him warm. At night she would sleep in an old rocking chair that she had 'borrowed' from Manuel, which she didn't mind. She just hoped that she was looking after him in the right way.

Four days after she had brought him home, the Ood sat up in Bella's bed and looked to her patiently with his small eyes. He remained silent, just watching her sleep with a makeshift blanket covering her arms and her chest.

Eventually she stirred in her sleep and slowly opened her eyes to find the odd looking creature staring at her. "You're awake," she gasped, sitting forward on her chair. It said nothing, and just looked at her. "Er, how are you feeling? Are you hungry? I wasn't sure how you ate – I couldn't see a mouth, so I just dipped your tentacle things in the water..."

"Bella has looked after Alpha twenty-four to the best of her knowledge." The Ood said, lifting its round translator ball in front of him when he spoke.

Bella blinked, not knowing what to say.

"Ood do not normally get treated with such kindness," the Ood continued due to Bella's blank expression. "I thought I was going to die."

"I wouldn't have left you there," Bella told him.

"I know," he said simply.

"How could you know something like that?" she asked curiously.

"I could hear your thoughts," he told her. "Not everyone can hear our songs, Bella."

Bella frowned and contemplated the Ood's answer in silence for a few minutes, before asking "So, what's your name?"

"Alpha twenty-four," he told her promptly. "What do you wish for me to do? I could cook for you –"he jumped up suddenly "- or sweep the floor or collect firewood –"

Bella jumped up as the Ood moved hastily towards the fireplace and placed a hand on his right forearm to try and stop him. "I don't want you to do anything but rest," she told him gently, hoping that this wouldn't offend him. "I'm not like the others; I don't want to abuse your kindness."

"You wouldn't be," he said, looking down to her.

"If you're okay, then maybe I should take you home." Bella said. "Your family is probably worried."

"They know where I am." He said. "And you have already done too much for me, I will leave. I can tell when I am not needed."

"It's not that I don't need you," Bella said quickly. In all honesty, she needed someone with her a lot and she had enjoyed looking after the Ood, even if he had been unconscious. "At least let me walk you home?" she asked, wondering if 'home' was the right word to use.

"Bella must stay here," the Ood told her. "The forest is not safe for you at the present time."

_This being said by the person who was trapped down a hole for God knows how long_, Bella thought to herself. "Well, at least assure me that you'll watch where you are going?"

The Ood blinked a few times before answering. "I will try my hardest for you." He told her.

Bella nodded then moved to the door to hold it open and the Ood bowed and walked past silently. She watched him walk towards the forest's edge in the soft sunlight coming from the setting sun in the south.

"Wait," she suddenly called, running quickly after him. She stopped beside him and he gazed down at her patiently. "Can I ask you a favour?" she asked him timidly.

"You have an order for me?" he asked her with the slightest hint of eagerness in his voice.

"No, not an order, just a request I suppose you could call it." Bella said, looking into the Ood's strange eyes. "I was wondering if you would like to come back and visit me." She asked awkwardly.

The Ood remained silent, saying nothing and Bella looked down, feeling rejection burn her heart.

"I mean, I understand if you don't want too, you're probably too busy to come back here –"

"I can come back tomorrow if that would please you?"

Bella looked back up to him, feeling surprised. "Really?"

"I can help you collect firewood." The Ood said warmly. "Farewell, Bella."

Bella watched the Ood walk away, letting many different emotions fill her mind; excitement for having something good to look forward too, bewilderment as to how the Ood knew she was planning on collecting firewood, uncertainty about what the Ood was going to be like (he was an alien, after all) and a little fear. What happens if she grew to like him and he just left her alone? Nearly everyone else had left her. She shook her head, thinking she was getting a tad ahead of herself.

They collected firewood the next day and Bella found it surprisingly easy to be around the Ood. She didn't find it overly awkward talking to him yet she soon discovered that he didn't really have a sense of humour. None-the-less, from that day forth, Bella spent nearly every possible moment with the Ood either down at a quiet spot by the river or in the grassy field behind her hut. She would lie beside him and listen to the breathtaking songs that seemed to emanate from him.

"How come I can hear the signing?" she asked him curiously as she watched the grey clouds float across the green sky and the wind swept through the tall green grass.

"Because you are special," he told her.

"But how?" she pressed hoping not to come across too impatient. "No one else here can hear your songs."

"The Nealonians cannot hear us because their minds do not allow such things." The Ood said. "They have become a rude and uncaring species who do not listen at the best of times."

"Can humans hear your songs?" she asked, thinking that the Ood's description of the Nealonians fitted them perfectly.

"No,"

Bella opened her mouth to ask him how he knew that fact before someone a few metres away gave a cry. She sat bolt upright and looked around to find to her left smoke rising into the air. She jumped to her feet and ran as fast as she could towards the terrified cries. As she got closer she saw red flames reaching towards the sky and she swore under her breath as she realised that the crops her village relied on for food were what was burning.


	29. Ep6 Abandoned CH5

**_Author's note: The is a tiny bit of violence in this one. Just thought I'd give you a heads up :)_**

* * *

Ep6 Abandoned CH5

The fire lasted two days before the rains finally fell and extinguished the fire, but by that time all the food crops had been destroyed. As Bella stood beside her solemn grandfather, she looked down at a large patch of ground that seemed far more charred than the rest.

"Grandfather," she said quietly. "Can offer my opinion?"

Manuel remained silent for a few moments before nodding.

"I don't think this fire started naturally." Bella said.

"Why would you say that?" Manuel asked sharply.

"The burn pattern for one," Bella said, pointing down to the patch in front of her. "I don't need a degree in Forensics to know that that is not normal."

"Are you suggesting that someone started this wildfire on purpose?" he ordered angrily. "A Nealonian, one of our own?"

"Yes and no," Bella answered quickly. "Yes I think someone started it, but I don't think it was a Nealonian because everyone depends on the food too much and the farmers who dedicate their lives to the crops work way too hard to ever do this. The reason why I think it was started on purpose is because of that fuel like smell." She inhaled deeply through her nose and she noticed her grandfather do the same. "It smells like diesel, something which you don't have on this planet."

"If you're saying what you think you are, you believe that aliens are behind this?"

Bella shrugged. "What other explanation is there?"

"Perhaps the only explanation is that of a natural occurrence, child!" said an angry voice. Bella turned around and found Elder Fode an old, power hungry man with grey flowing hair approaching them. "Do not fill you king's mind with filthy human ideas. What happened here was nothing more than a terrible natural disaster –"

"You don't know the meaning of the word disaster!" Bella said heatedly. "You have no idea of the horror of tsunamis that kill thousands – if not millions – of innocent people while leaving thousands without homes and food and water. You don't know about volcanic eruptions that bury entire civilisations alive who aren't found for thousands of years! What is it that you've lost?"

"We have lost our food?" the old man said, outraged.

"So what?" she snapped. "There is at least six months of food left in the store houses if you ration it out properly and the crops can be regrown in that time. No one lost their homes or their livestock and no one lost their lives! Someone caused this fire and their intention is all too clear; to give you a warning."

"Is that a threat?" Fode asked dangerously, taking a step towards her.

"It's not my fault that you don't believe me," Bella said smoothly. "But I will get to the bottom of this because the people of Nealon have a right to know if they are in danger."

Elder Fode slapped her across her left cheek with enough force to knock her down on all fours. Manuel gave a cry and moved forward before Fode stopped him.

"You know the rules, my lord." Fode said, sneering. "Those who do not respect their elders shall be dealt with in any way that that elder sees fit."

"She is my granddaughter for Gallifrey's sake!" Manuel said furiously. "Bella is a part of the Royal line; you do not treat anyone of the Royal line in such a way!"

"She is mostly human, that cancels it out." Fode said indifferently. "Besides, she bares no ties to the throne. She has not yet been crowned remember? I will see you back at the town meeting tonight, my lord."

Bella watched the old man leave, glaring after him as her grandfather helped her off her knees, feeling hatred pulsated through her - at least she assumed it was hatred, seeing as she had never hated anyone before now.

"If you would only let me crown you, you could get your own back," Manuel said as he too watched Fode walk away. Bella smiled slightly, her face still red with humiliation.

"No thanks," she said. "I don't want to deal with him any more than I absolutely have to..."

Over the next year, Bella compiled numerous papers on the odd occurrences that seemed to be happening more and more frequently. Apart from the increased number of wild fires that would get dangerously close to their crops, there had been minor earthquakes, major flooding and disease that had killed off a lot of the animals and plants. She had managed to come up with logical explanations for all, but most of them (excluding the earthquakes) could have been caused by aliens wishing to cause the Nealonians harm. It was during this time that Bella had decided that she had known the Ood long enough to give him a proper name.

"Alpha Twenty-four," she had said one bright, sunny day as they walked together along a streams edge. "Can I give you a name?"

The tall Ood had looked to her, blinking his eyes. "I already have a name." He said sounding confused.

"I know you do," Bella said gently. "I just feel like it's so impersonal and that you deserve so much more than that."

"Bella is much to kind to me," the Ood said bowing.

She had smiled at this, just like she always did when he became shy. "If you don't want a new name, that's okay; if you are happy with Alpha twenty-four, then so am I."

"I would like a new name from you,"

Bella smiled. "How about Patrick?" she had asked and the Ood had nodded. "Are you only agreeing because you know I like that name?'

"I like Bella to be happy," the Ood had told her.

Bella shook her head but couldn't help but smile as she had taken the tall Ood's hand in her own.


	30. Ep6 Abandoned CH6

"Bella," her grandfather said softly, sitting on his throne in the great hall. "It's been four years now."

"And I still don't want to be a _princess_." Bella said moodily as she leant against the side of the throne. _Four years_, she thought painfully, _she hadn't seen the Doctor in four years_.

"Please," he pleaded. "I would like to retire sometime in the near future and seeing as you are my only living relative since my wife and daughter have passed –"

"I am sure Elder Fode will happily take my place –"

"Over my dead body!" snapped Manuel. "The royal line has passed through my family for millions of years! Even if you don't choose to become Queen I can respect that." He continued gently. "I just want you to have the choice."

"I'm sorry," Bella said and she meant it. She got up and made a move to move away but Manuel said sternly "Isabella Lumic, do _not_ walk away!"

She stopped and looked back to him.

"We can do it now while no one is here," he pressed.

Bella sighed. "No one is here because _I_ am here. Ever since Elder Fode declared to everyone that I was a bad luck magnet a few days ago, everyone has been avoiding me like the plague. I really don't think they'd want me ruling the country."

"All you'd have to do would be to wear a red cloak, I won't even make you wear the crown!" he grinned as she scowled back at him.

Twenty minutes later she walked out of the hall with a blood-red cloak around her shoulders, feeling red in the face as everyone stared at her in disbelief. To be honest, she couldn't believe it herself. She was now a princess of something.

She shook her head. She needed to get out of here. Allowing herself to be crowned meant that she had subconsciously given up on the Doctor coming back for her and she couldn't let herself do that.

"Lumic!" someone yelled as she walked quickly through the town and she came to a stop, knowing who it was. Fode approached her, looking the angriest she had ever seen him. "Why are you in the royal garb?"

She looked at him straight in the eye. "I am making my grandfather happy." She said quietly.

"Happy?" he repeated furiously. "Only those who have been crowned can wear the royal red cloak."

Bella nodded. "I know that, I'm not one to ruin a tradition."

"But then..." Fode trailed off before a look of realisation and shock flashed across his face. "No!" he gasped.

Bella turned and began to walk away through the houses, not wanting to deal with him right now. As she headed to her small hut she saw Patrick waiting for her on the other side of the newly built fence that Fode had erected once he discovered Bella's friendship with the Ood. Not even glancing back at the town, she ran towards him and jumped the fence.

"Take me as far away from here as possible!" she said somewhat emotionally.

The tall Ood bowed and took her right hand. "I know where to take you."

Bella nodded and she allowed herself to be lead into the deep forest, unaware that a tall, green figure was watching her through the trees.

Bella followed Patrick silently through the thick, dense wood, noting that they seemed to be on a path. Poking her head around Patrick's arms she saw that they were heading towards a rock formation that was in the side of a cliff.

"This is my home, Bella." Patrick said and Bella begun to hear singing of many Ood in her head. He took her left hand and led her into the mouth of the cave, which Bella expected to be dark and dank. She was not disappointed.

"Patrick," she gasped, her voice echoing off the walls surrounding them. "I can't –"

"I can," he said quietly, his round translator ball lighting up and blinding her even more so. "I will guide you safely."

Knowing there was no point to argue with an Ood, she grabbed hold of his arm with the hand that wasn't already holding tightly onto his hand and allowed him to lead her through the dark, for how long she didn't know. Suddenly, as though they had simply walked through a door, they came into a well lit cave and Bella's jaw fell open as she took in the sight before them.

There were ten Ood sitting down beside a crystal clear river, looking up to them, all singing welcomingly in Bella's mind.

"There are so many of you," Bella whispered to Patrick, feeling overwhelmed.

"Welcome Bella," one of them said, his round translator ball lighting up as he stood.

Patrick motioned Bella forward, letting go of her hand and she moved towards the others. Only three of them were like Patrick with round translator balls, the rest had grey ponchos on and they were covering whatever it was that they had in their hands. When she reached them, they all stood up and the seven different natural Ood showed her their hands.

"Brains," Bella whispered looking at the Ood in front of her, her eyes bristling with tears.

"Feel not for those of us who have been processed, for we do not mind." Patrick said behind her.

"But Patrick," she managed to say. "Your second brain was removed!"

"There is a third brain that we are all connected to that allows us to sing," he told her, "Although it will not always be this good. The third brain will be confined and bound and we who have been changed will not be able to sing."

"The Doctor Donna will set us free again." said one of the other processed Ood.

Bella's stomach dropped, unused to the Doctor's name being thrown up in general conversation.

"Do not give up on him yet." said one of the other Ood, moving closure to her and looking at her with gentle eyes. "They are coming back."

Bella's heart skipped a few beats.

"He should never have left her here in the first place." Said the final processed Ood at the back of the group. "Much too dangerous, he is always looking for her."

"Who is looking for me?" Bella asked frowning.

"It is not our place to say." The same angry Ood told her and Bella looked round to Patrick in confusion as the Ood's song changed to a deeper, pain-filled song.

"They are coming back, child of Earth and Nealon." The Ood at the back continued.

"The Doctor and Jack?" asked Bella desperately.

"The family you have met before," he said.

Bella frowned. "What family?"

"You must prepare your people." said the Ood who had spoken to her first in a calm voice. "A war is close and we fear that the Nealonians will not fare so well."

"We _have_ been under attack all these years!" Bella realised. "Whoever it is has been trying to scare us out of here for nearly three years!"

"They face extinction, Bella." Patrick said gently. "You need to prepare them for the oncoming battle."

"When?" she gasped, "How long do we have –"

"We do not know the exact time; we only know that it will definitely come to pass." Patrick told her.

"And the Doctor?" she pressed. "Will he come back?"

"Come, Bella," Patrick said as the Oods song changed in her head to that of a cheery farewell, making her feel like, emotionally, she had whiplash.

Unfortunately, the Nealonians didn't take Bella overly seriously, especially when no attack came. A year after the Oods dire warning, Bella stood in the garden beside her small hut watching Patrick replanting a flower that looked like a white lily that she had planted wrongly in the first place. She knelt down beside him and got started on the flower next to him when she heard a noise that made her heart stop.

_Vworp! Vworp!_

She had almost stopped hoping that that sound would ever reach her ears again. She slowly stood up and turned around, squinting to see if the beautiful old police box had really landed. Eventually she found it; beside the fountain in the middle of the town with a swarm of people around it.

"He needs you," Patrick said gently. "Go to him."

She dropped her small spade on the ground and began to run past angry people towards the man that she had missed more than anyone in the entire universe, and for the moment she didn't care about why he had left her in the first place. She didn't anticipate what she would feel when she finally saw him, but it hit her hard...

* * *

**Next time: The Doctor and Jack land back on Nealon to discover that they have been gone for five years and that it seems that something familiar is unleashing terror apon the Nealonians. How can this threat possibly know the Nealonians one true weakness seeing as the one person other than the Doctor to know is dead?**

* * *

**_Author's note: Well, that's it for my little creative tangent now its back to the actual series! I hope you enjoyed it 'cause like I said, I wasn't origionally going to put it in the series, so I hope you liked it :P Lol, the ending kind of gave away the fact that the Doctor comes back... Bad writing on my behalf :P_**


	31. Ep7 The Last Nealonian CH1

Ep7 The Last Nealonian CH1

Captain Jack made his way furiously over to the Doctor, the TARDIS lurching and dropping uncomfortably, and the tooth-drilling sound of the Klaxon nearly deafened him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jack yelled angrily over all the noise.

The Doctor (who Jack thought looked absolutely miserable) ignored him and moved around the consol pressing buttons and pulling levers moodily.

Jack quickly grabbed hold of the soft yellow three-seater chair as the TARDIS swayed before everything became still and all noise stopped.

"Torchwood," the Doctor said quietly, not looking at him.

Jack stood up to his full height and looked to the Doctor furiously. "What the hell are you playing at?"

"Don't," the Doctor said (or rather pleaded) to him.

"You just left her there on that weird planet!" Jack said furiously, his voice raised slightly. "No explanations, no farewells –"

"I can't do it again, Jack!" The Doctor said, finally looking at him.

Jack looked at the Doctor's pain filled expression and felt as though he understood why he had left her there. _He's fallen for her_, he said to himself. "You can't just leave her there!" He said, not as angry as he had been before.

"I don't want to ruin her life –"

"I think it's a bit late for that, don't you?" Jack said. "I would say abandonment counts as ruining someone's life!"

"She deserves a family," the Doctor said, trying to justify his actions.

"She didn't want one." Jack told him quietly. "She thought it was great that we had figured out what she really was and where she comes from, but she wanted to stay with you! Her grandfather asked her to stay with them and she turned them down because she didn't want to leave you!"

The Doctor looked at him with a slightly horrified expression on his face.

"She didn't like it there, Doctor," Jack said, hoping he could get him to go back and get her, hoping he could change his mind. "She didn't like how they treated you, she didn't like how they thought, she didn't like how they put weapons before proper housing and she didn't like anything about them."

The Doctor felt sick. What had he done? He had put himself before Bella. He hadn't even asked her what she had thought of them, he hadn't even thought that she mightn't like it there.

"I'm such an idiot," the Doctor said faintly, feeling horrified. He looked to Jack.

"Well, I'm not going to disagree with you there but I think there are more fitting words to describe you more accurately than _idiot_, though." Jack said seriously. "She is a great woman and you let her go willingly."

"We need to get back to her," the Doctor said hurriedly. "What was I thinking?"

Well, he had thought he knew what he'd been thinking when he had decided to leave Bella there, but obviously he hadn't thought it through as much as he had wanted to.

Before the Doctor could do anything, the TARDIS gave a sudden jolt and both the Doctor and Jack were knocked off their feet. The Time Rotor was rising and falling and the unique sound of the TARDIS's dematerialisation filled the air.

"WHAT?" the Doctor yelled over all the noise of things toppling over and the control panel sparking and catching fire in places. "WHAT?"


	32. Ep7 The Last Nealonian CH2

Ep7 The Last Nealonian CH2

When the TARDIS finally remained still and the Time Rotor came to a halt and Jack had begun extinguishing the small fires on the control panel, the Doctor just stood in disbelief, gaping at the control panel.

"What just happened?" Jack asked, putting the fire extinguisher down beside him.

"It's impossible!" the Doctor gasped, moving for the first time in minutes, pressing various buttons, fiddling with different coloured wires, hitting leavers and actually kicking the control panel, seeming bewildered. "It just couldn't…"

Jack watched the Doctor run around the control room, hitting everything and anything he came into contact with in frustration. Obviously something had occurred that the Doctor couldn't explain – _a very rare occurrence, indeed_, Jack thought to himself smiling.

"What's impossible?" he asked.

"This can't happen!" the Doctor said, outraged as he put his brainy specs on and looked to the computer screen. "The TARDIS chose coordinates by herself, and, if that wasn't enough, she travelled through time and space on her own accord!" he said, beginning to pace, ruffling his hand through his hair.

"Where are we?" Jack asked.

He stopped pacing. "I don't know," he said, clearly not liking the phase. "We could be anywhere. Parallel universe, end of the universe, start of the universe, or maybe in the void… The coordinates were erased before I could see them, I don't understand!"

As the Doctor went back to reading the computer screen, Jack walked to the doors, opened them then walked out.

"What part of _I-don't-know-where-we-are_ do you not understand?" The Doctor said furiously, grabbing hid jacket and putting it on. "One day I will finally find a human that _listens_ to me!" He ignored the voice in his head saying that he had already found someone who did that before he'd left her behind on an alien planet and he walked towards the doors, before turning and pointing sternly back to the centre console. "I will deal with you later!" he said somewhat angrily to the TARDIS, before walking out and closing the doors behind him.

"Jack –"he said, before breaking off.

He stood beside Jack, dumbfounded for the second time in only a few minutes, as the people of planet Nealon stood staring at them. Some of the men were holding up their high capacity ray guns at them, scowling, although the Doctor hardly noticed as he was searching through the faces, trying to find Bella. Why had the TARDIS brought them back? Had Bella been hurt? Could she manage that in only ten minutes of them not being there?

"Well, this is certainly a warm reception." Jack said looking around at them, his arms raised in surrender.

"You are both bringers of ill fate." said one of the men furiously as he glared at the both of them.

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked sharply.

"After you brought _her_ here, everything changed!" the man told them.

"Bella?" the Doctor asked feeling his stomach drop uncomfortably. "Is she okay?"

"Bella's health is more than satisfactory," said a harsh voice from the nearest mud-brick house. "There will be no more talk of the matter out here."

Manuel, Bella's grandfather, stepped out from the shadows, he too glaring at the Doctor and Jack, yet not as severe as the group of old men behind him. He seemed angry, yet it seemed to be for different reasons and to the Doctor, he almost seemed to be doing it reluctantly. "Guards, escort these two into the Great Hall where their fates shall be decided."

"What?" Jack said quickly. "What have we done?"

"We will not discuss the matters out here!" Manuel snapped before two large guards shoved the Doctor and Jack roughly.

"What is going on?" Jack whispered to the Doctor, who was walking beside him.

"Something isn't right, Jack." The Doctor said quietly as he observed everything around them. "And I think the TARDIS knew that."

"So the TARDIS brought us back to be captured?" Jack asked sarcastically.

"Something bad is coming," the Doctor said feeling worried. "I can feel it."

Jack looked up to him. "The TARDIS wanted to make sure Bella was safe?"

The Doctor frowned and remained silent and Jack thought that he was thinking on the same lines as him. Where was Bella?

As they were being led away, neither of them noticed behind them that a hooded figure was watching them. The hood was the deep royal red, the Royal garb of the king of Nealon and his family and the wearer was a youthful looking girl, who never thought this day would come.


	33. Ep7 The Last Nealonian CH3

**Ep7 The Last Nealonian CH3**

The Doctor and Jack stood in what looked like your usual Earth church. It was a tall building with very high ceilings and was one of the only buildings made from stone. The whole of the town had basically turned up to watch, sitting in wooden pews behind them both. Manuel stood before them with the towns elders behind him, glaring down at the Doctor and Jack as if they had brought them some kind of bad misfortune.

"What do you have to say for yourselves?" Manuel ordered, his voice sounding strained and tired.

"Well, I've been told on numerous occasions that I have good hair?" the Doctor offered politely as Jack sniggered.

Manuel frowned at him as he rolled his eyes, "About the crimes that have been committed to this race, Doctor."

"I have committed a large amount of crimes in my lifetime," the Doctor said, he too frowning, "but I don't recall ever committing any here. Jack?"

"I am pretty confident that I haven't committed anything here," Jack said. "And trust me, that's saying something!" he added smiling making the Doctor roll his eyes.

"Maybe you should tell us what we have supposedly done to your people?" the Doctor suggested politely.

Manuel hesitated and looked to the men behind him, who all nodded fiercely in encouragement. "You are responsible for this planet's misgivings." He said somewhat reluctantly, turning back to the Doctor and Jack. "All the floods, the wildfires, the earthquakes, the famines and the disease that has wrecked havoc upon these lands," he said dully.

The Doctor opened his mouth to tell Manuel how spectacularly wrong he was, but he was so shocked that he and Jack were getting the blame for all these natural occurrences, his voice seemed to have deserted him.

"And no one will stand up for you!" one of the elders said triumphantly.

"Wrong, Elder Fode," Said a familiar voice.

It was Bella. She was walking towards them, her eyes directly on Fode, apparently ignoring the presence of the Doctor and Jack. As she reached them she threw back her deep red hood and glared at Fode.

"I will stand for them." She said strongly.

Elder Fode stared furiously at Bella. "How dare –"

"You are talking a load of codswallop and you know it!" Bella said her voice level but the Doctor could see her hands trembling. "You know all my theories on these matters –"

"Well, why don't you explain them to the rest of us?" said one of the other Elders, and the Doctor didn't like how he spoke to her.

Bella sighed, she, like her grandfather, sounding tired. "Had Fode showed you my reports... the earthquakes are caused by the planet's crust – or the continental plates moving against each other, which causes friction. This then leads to the earth beneath our feet to shift. Famines are caused by the loss of crops which can be due to wildfires, flooding and disease. If you wish to read about these logical explanations in more detail, then by all means read my thesis's on each of them in the library, Elder Mahn.

"Now, if we might continue to the matter at hand," Bella continued after none of the Elders said anything. "It is not the Doctor's, Jack's nor my fault that you are all a bunch of superstitious old men, so we will leave you to talk of us in peace!"

She turned and faced the Doctor and Jack, still not meeting their eyes while the Elders looked disgusted.

"Bella, if they try and –"

"They will not try and leave, grandfather." Bella said stiffly, grabbing hold of both the Doctor's and Jack's arms to lead them out of the hall.

They followed her bewildered out of the hall, through the township and towards the outskirts of the town. They asked her where they were going but she ignored them, so they followed her in silence, the Doctor's guilt reaching painful levels. As they walked he watched the back of her and noted she was wearing her jeans and black converse All Stars under her royal cloak.

They came to a small mud-brick hut, one that was twice as small as all the other ones in the town. Bella walked inside and left the door opened, so after exchanging a glance, the Doctor and Jack followed her inside.

"Bella, what is going on?" The Doctor asked feeling slightly frustrated as she poured herself a glass of water and sculled it as though she was wishing it were something a bit stronger. "We leave you for no more than ten minutes and –"

The glass that Bella had been holding fell through her suddenly numb fingers onto the hard stone floor where it shattered. She stared at him with a look full of pain and shock on her face.

"What?" the Doctor asked, alarmed by the intensity of her stare.

She looked down, seeming upset. "I need to go for a walk and get firewood before night falls," she told them walking to the door. "Do not leave this hut until I get back!"

She walked out the door and closed it and Jack turned to the Doctor. "Yeah, I think she is slightly mad at us." He observed lightly.

The Doctor sighed and sunk to the small single bed putting his face in his hands, guilt overcoming him. He had sworn he was doing the right thing, leaving her with family, something she'd never really had. He sat back up and looked around the room. On the opposite side of the room was a fire place. In the corner between the fire place and the front door was a table with three wooden chairs that had a jug of water and a candle holder with a candle in it. Beside the bed was a bookshelf full of books and paper and the bed itself had a thick blanket that looked like Bella had made it herself and two pillows that were filled with feathers.

"Doctor," Jack asked. "Do you get the impression that we've been gone a bit longer than ten minutes?"

The Doctor looked up to him and nodded. "Yeah, but I don't understand how and why the TARDIS brought us back." He stood up in frustration and began pacing around the tiny house. "We were going to come back, so why would the TARDIS concentrate on Bella's personal timeline specifically? THINK!" He yelled at himself.

"Do they have some kind of connection?" Jack suggested lamely. He knew the very basics of how the TARDIS worked, but he had no idea if it could form a connection with someone.

"The TARDIS has never done this before," the Doctor said to himself, deep in thought, before suddenly he thought about what Jack had just said. "Of COURSE!" he exclaimed, hitting himself in the head. "When Bella got the TARDIS back to Torchwood!"

Jack looked at him, waiting patiently for the Doctor to slowly reveal his epiphany.

"No one has ever done that," the Doctor said excitedly. "No one can successfully operate the TARDIS by themselves unless they have looked into the heart of the TARDIS herself or are a Time Lord, and lets be honest, it's not always a smooth ride when I do it, is it?"

Jack felt lost.

"When Bella operated the TARDIS," the Doctor explained to him. "I was unconscious and the TARDIS recognised that she wasn't me or another Time Lord, so the TARDIS established a very strong, almost unbreakable psychic connection with Bella's mind, which is how Bella could operate her! The TARDIS knew I was in trouble and needed help, read Bella's thoughts and helped her get me to you, because that must have been all she was thinking about!"

"I hope that makes you feel worse for abandoning her," Jack said coolly.

The Doctor ignored him and continued pacing. "The TARDIS must have sensed that something was wrong –"

"There she is!" Jack said suddenly, looking out the window. The Doctor moved to the table and leant across it to see out of the window too.

Bella was standing on the opposite side of a fence in the green field about a hundred meters away from her house with her arms full of timber. She was talking to an Ood, whose round talking device lit up when it spoke. After a few minutes, Bella dropped the firewood beside the fence, hugged the Ood and then jumped the fence. The Ood then passed her the firewood, bid each other farewell and then went their separate ways.

Jack opened the front door for Bella, who said her thanks and knelt down before the empty fire place.

"Bella, what is _really_ going on?" the Doctor asked quietly. "Why are Jack and I being blamed for the weather?"

Bella didn't answer him until she had lit the fire. "It isn't just you and Jack." She told them quietly watching the flames as she spoke. "I've been labelled _bad luck_, an omen. Supposedly when we arrived here and you – you left me was when everything started to go bad." She said, standing up and walking over to her book case and retrieved a very large pile of papers and placed them on the table in front of the Doctor, who just looked at Bella, who was finally looking at him.

"The earthquakes are as frequent as ever, there hasn't been a volcanic eruption in all the time that I've been here and there have been a few floods because we don't have proper drainage. I have told them that they could fix most of these problems if they stopped putting all their time and effort into making stupid guns! There are logical explanations about the fires, the famines and the increased rate of disease, but I have some other not-so-natural ideas also…"

The Doctor looked down to the pile of paper and flicked through the notes, Bella's neat handwriting sprawling over pages and pages of her hard work. He had a question for her but he was very afraid of the answer. "How long have we been gone?"

Bella looked away from him. "Five years," she said quietly, her voice shaking as the Doctor felt his mouth fall. "It's been five Earth years since you left me here. I am technically twenty-three years old, or rather, in my Nealonian years I am one hundred and fifteen and you two haven't even aged a day."

Jack gaped at her, unable to say anything at all.

"It hasn't even been a day for us," the Doctor said as the guilt leaked onto his face and into his voice, but he didn't care. "More like ten minutes…"

Bella looked at him, a painful expression on her face. "You're lucky," she said in hardly a whisper as tears began to well up in her eyes.

"Bella," the Doctor said the slightest hint of a shake in his voice before he stood up.

There was a sudden cry from outside and Bella, followed by the Doctor and Jack ran out of the hut. Most of the village had all gathered around the water well that stood in the middle of the town, all of them looking down into it. Some of the women were sobbing, some of the men looked worried as they patted the women on their arms, but most of the people standing there all glared at Bella.

"This is all your fault!" Elder Fode said furiously pointing at Bella. "The water is all gone!"

"Oh, pack it in you superstitious old fool!" Bella snapped angrily, the Doctor and Jack exchanging a quick smirk; Bella had obviously grown tired of being blamed all the time. "The underground river that supplies this well with water has obviously been blocked somewhere upstream by something. The cave might have collapsed upon itself. I will go and have a look," she turned around to the Doctor and Jack. "Go back to my house."

"And what makes you think that they won't come after us once you aren't with us?" Jack asked, and the Doctor felt that he made a good point.

Bella smiled ever-so-slightly. "A man who can never die is worried about his own personal safety." She said lightly. "Don't worry Jack, none of them would even contemplate trying to hurt either of you while I was around… well, not unless they got me out of the equation first…?"


	34. Ep7 The Last Nealonian CH4

Ep7 The Last Nealonian CH4

Bella didn't return until well after darkness had enclosed itself around them accompanied by four Ood, one of them walking close beside her, the other three walking hesitantly behind them. The Doctor and Jack quickly left Bella's 'house' and headed in the same direction as they were. As the seven of them turned the corner around a large house they found almost the whole town, the Elders and Manuel waiting for them.

"Must you bring _them_ here, Bella?" Manuel asked looking to the Ood.

"Yes, I must!" Bella answered stubbornly.

Manuel sighed and shook his head slightly as the Elders behind him grumbled angrily to themselves. "Very well, Bella, what did you find out?"

"The entrance to the cave has been entirely blocked off." Bella told them all and they all gasped in response. "Nothing can get past it. We tried to destroy it, but it is thick metal that doesn't come from this planet. Nealon does not have the resources or the technology to build such a thing."

"Are you saying that it is of alien make?" Manuel asked shocked and Bella nodded in answer.

"Well, perhaps it is a design of those standing beside you child!" Elder Fode said angrily.

"The Ood have absolutely nothing to do with this!" Bella said defensively. "They depend on the water too!"

"Your silly obsession with these creatures, girl, has made you blind!" Fode said.

"They have **not** done this!" Bella yelled furiously, stepping forward from the Doctor, Jack and the Ood. "The Ood are a billion times more advanced than any other life form in this entire universe, including _you_!"

"Oh," Elder Fode sneered. "Do enlighten us to how _that _works, my dear girl."

"They don't feel hate, they don't mistrust and they don't judge," Bella said, her voice beginning to shake. She was crying. "They aren't like you! You hate whatever is different to you and how you think. You don't trust anyone and you judge people on what they do or how they look or whether someone is a _half-breed_! The Ood don't do any of that. They love everything, trust anything and they certainly don't care if I am half-_human_!"

She turned and put her arm around the Ood closest to her and led the three others away towards her home, hiding her face from the Doctor.

Manuel made a move to follow her but Elder Fode stopped him.

"Leave her be, she is so hot-tempered." Elder Fode said in frustration and disgust as Manuel watched his granddaughter walk away and the other elders nodded in agreement.

"She is so _human_!" the Doctor said proudly. "The Ood can't even think for a millisecond about hurting someone or their environment. They did not block your water supply, but whoever did I'm sure they know a thing or two about wildfires and damaging crops. But Bella has already pointed that out hasn't she, Grandpa? She's already told you that it looks like someone is doing a lot of '_natural occurrences_' on purpose. What do you think, Jack?"

"It sounds like an old battle tactic to me, Doctor." Jack said, "And a very good one by the looks of things here."

"There is no enemy!" snapped Elder Fode, "There is no war!"

"I could help you," the Doctor said quietly.

"We do not need help from an _outsider_!" Manuel snapped, avoiding the Doctor's gaze.

Something in the Doctor's mind suddenly clicked and two very strong emotions filled every inch of him. He felt utterly sick with guilt and fury and he knew he would never be able to forgive himself for what he did to Bella.

"I left her here," he said quietly, his voice full of cold fury. "I brought her here and left her with you Manuel, to give her the family she had never had and it seems as though you have mistreated her, am I correct?"

"She is only half Nealon," Manuel said quietly.

"She is your own granddaughter!" the Doctor said furiously, his voice rising. "How can you deny her family?"

"Her father made sure we would never accept her," Elder Fode said, moving forward. "As did her mother for marrying and reproducing with that pitiful and scheming human. Humans are beneath us, to converse with them is unthinkable, dirty. You should feel satisfied, Doctor that Lord Manuel did not have her killed."

The Doctor felt a wave of fury rush over him and he moved forward, but Jack grabbed hold of him to stop him from doing something he may regret later, but even Jack looked like he was resisting the urge to knock some sense into the old men (literally, of course).

"You do not want me as your enemy." The Doctor said dangerously as Elder Fode laughed at him.

"What could a pompous Time Lord do to us?" the old man laughed again.

"I know your one true weakness," the Doctor said quietly. "With one word all of your greatest enemies would know and that would lead to your destruction."

"You cannot possibly know!" Elder Fode said, fear flashing across his face briefly.

"He does know, so stop provoking him Fode!" Manuel snapped.

Silence fell and the Doctor looked back to Manuel. "She just wanted you to care about her…"

"Yes," Manuel said darkly. "Bella's life is full of disappointing men. Her father, me and even _you_, Doctor…"

The Doctor turned and walked away, feeling the angriest he had in a long time. No wonder Bella was acting so hostile to him and he didn't blame her. She had every right to never want to talk to him again. He had just left her here, no questions asked.

As he rounded the corner with Jack close behind him, he saw Bella with the Ood almost at her hut, just as there was an explosion behind the hut in the next field. Screams suddenly filled the air behind him as he ran towards Bella.

"You need to get back to your kind!" Bella said to the Ood, as the Doctor and Jack skidded to a halt beside her. "Warn them, you need to hide!"

"We can stay," said the Ood standing opposite her.

"Damn it, Patrick!" Bella snapped, grabbing the Ood's arms. "Don't make me order you!"

"Bella is much to kind to us," said the Ood that Bella had named Patrick as he bowed slightly. "I will stay with you; the others will go and warn the rest of our kind."

"It won't be safe for you out here, Patrick –"

Patrick ignored her and turned to the other Ood. They did not need to speak out loud, the Doctor knew this and he could hear their solemn singing in his head.

"Bella," the Doctor said as she looked to him. "I am so sorry! I thought they would have been the family you never had! I thought they would care for you and treat you as one of their own, just like you deserve so much… because I can't give you that…"

Bella looked past the Doctor to Jack, who nodded solemnly. She looked back to the Doctor, who Bella thought looked absolutely miserable.

"I know," she said quietly, "and it was a genuinely nice motion, Doctor, but I didn't need a family. I had you and occasionally I was lucky enough to have Jack as well."

"We aren't a family," the Doctor said bleakly.

"No," Bella agreed. "But I had practically grown up without one, what makes you think I needed one now after all these years?"

The Doctor didn't get the chance to answer her as another explosion blew apart Bella's home. He quickly grabbed her and pulled her away from the burning wreck.

The Ood began running in the direction of their home and Patrick moved to Bella's side as loud alarm bells went off.

"Come on!" Bella yelled as she took Patrick's hand and they ran toward the centre of town.

All around them people were screaming and houses were burning. Children ran from house to house calling for their parents. Another explosion hit the ground not too far from them which knocked them all off their feet.

"Bella?" the Doctor yelled as he sat up quickly, looking around wildly. All the houses surrounding him were now on fire and people were running around like a bunch of headless chickens. He jumped up as he saw a small, petite figure a little way away from him pushing herself up. "Bella!"

He grabbed her as she coughed and spluttered and lifted her to her feet. She brushed dirt and blood from her eyes as Jack ran to them.

"C'mon," he yelled over all the noise of more bombs exploding.

The Doctor grabbed hold of Bella's hand (which she gripped tightly to) and the three of them began running, following the other frightened and wounded to the town hall. They dodged falling trees and flying debris and even walls of the houses that were falling and skidded round corners before finally the town hall was in sight. Suddenly Bella let go of the Doctor's hand and stopped. The Doctor spun round to face her.

"Doctor," Jack yelled from the doorway of the hall.

"Patrick!" Bella gasped quietly, staring at the Doctor horrified.

"Bella," the Doctor choked moving towards her as he could see what she was about to do. "You can't –"

"PATRICK!" Bella yelled, turning around and running back the way they had just come, through the smoke and the soot, the Doctor running after her.

"DOCTOR!" Jack yelled hopelessly as he watched the Doctor disappear into the thick smoke.

* * *

**_Author's note: And so it begins... _**


	35. Ep7 The Last Nealonian CH5

**Ep7 The Last Nealonian CH5**

The Doctor ran after Bella calling to her but she wouldn't stop as she called out to Patrick, looking around wildly. She knew that the Doctor was following her, but she couldn't leave the Ood to die. She turned a corner and fond Patrick standing between burning buildings covering his head with his arms and trembling from head to foot as more bombs hit the ground and exploded.

"Patrick!" she yelled before she wolf-whistled to get the lone Ood's attention. "Come on!"

The Doctor skidded around the corner and sighed in relief as he saw Patrick the Ood running towards Bella, who had her arms held out urging him on. He was about ten meters away from her when another bomb fell to the ground beside him.

"NO!" Bella screamed and was about to lunge forward but the Doctor grabbed her and held her tight. "No, Patrick…" she said desperately, looking through the dust as she gripped tightly to the Doctor, her head against his chest.

They stood still until the dust settled after a few moments and Bella gave a cry as Patrick's motionless body was revealed lying on the ground in an awkward position.

"Patrick!" she said tearfully, before another bomb fell close to them.

"Bella, we need to get out of here," the Doctor said gently, beginning to guide her back towards the town hall. She didn't argue with him, which he was very glad about. They both ran quickly through the open doors into the hall and the doors were slammed shut behind them.

Both of them stood panting and gasping for breath as the rest of the town moved about the hall. The mother's were all fussing over their children, who were all healing at a very alarming rate.

"What the hell were you thinking?" said Jack angrily as he approached them. "Running back out into the town, honestly, I thought you had both died!"

"Jack," the Doctor said, wiping his sweaty forehead on his arm. "Don't,"

Jack looked angrily from the Doctor to Bella, where his expression melted. Bella looked devastated and she had a few tears sliding down her cheeks that had escaped her eyes.

"Where is your _friend_, Bella?" Manuel asked walking up to her.

Bella looked down. "He's dead," she said quietly before Jack took her hand reassuringly.

"No great loss," Fode said indifferently. "They were bred to serve and he had no master."

"They were not bred for lazy, ungrateful humans!" Bella said furiously trying to move forward against Jack's now tight hold on her right arm.

"We are not _humans_!" Manuel said outraged.

"You are just as selfish and as arrogant as them, no offense Jack!" Bella yelled furiously and Jack shrugged indifferently. "They're born with a second brain in their hands for God's sake, they would do whatever we would tell them to do!"

She wrenched her arm out of Jack's strong hold and walked into the crowd towards the opposite end of the long, church-like hall where she sat alone in a corner and put her face in her arms.

The Doctor glared angrily at Manuel and Fode as he followed after her. He could still hear bombs exploding in the distance and occasionally it sounded as though they hit something. He sat before Bella and crossed his legs and just waited for her to fell ready to look up. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable.

She looked up to him eventually and she was no longer crying, and although she would never admit it (and he would never make her), the Doctor knew she had been crying because he eyes were red and slightly swollen. _A very human attribute_, he thought to himself.

"I can hear them singing in my head, all the time." She told him quietly. "Patrick explained that the Ood have a low level telepathic abilities so they can communicate without talking, you know, cause they are born with a second brain instead of a round translator. No one else here can hear it, just me. That's how I found Patrick. I could hear him signing for help 'cause he'd fallen down a trap hole. I named him after Patrick from _SpongeBob Squarepants_." she gave a small laugh as the Doctor smiled at her softly. "I really used to like that show. Patrick was really my only friend here, no one else payed me much attention…" she shook her head.

"What about that guard?" the Doctor asked. "He seemed keen on you."

"What about him?" Bella said angrily thinking back five years. "He was an arrogant idiot!" she added and decided to change the subject back to the Ood. "The Ood songs are beautiful. Sometimes they make you swell with happiness and other times it breaks your heart…"

"Can I listen?" the Doctor asked gently, holding out his hands.

She looked to his hands then back up to his face before nodding, looking slightly confused.

"This won't hurt, I promise," he said before placing his hands gently on either side of her face where the song became louder in his own head than it had been before.

"Why am I the only one who can hear it?" Bella asked, her voice trembling slightly. She wasn't used to being so close to someone, let alone the Doctor.

"I dunno," the Doctor admitted his eyes now closed. "That's why I am having a look. If there is anything you don't want me to see just imagine a closed door and I'll get the hint."

She let her eyes study his face for a moment before closing her eyes too.

"That's a fancy door," the Doctor smiled cheekily, his eyes still closed. "So is that one!"

"This feels very odd, Doctor," Bella said opening her eyes and looking at the Doctor again. "Do you do this all the time?"

"I try not to make a habit out of it, no." he said.

Bella suddenly gasped and flinched slightly and closed her eyes in pain.

"Sorry, the older memories can be a bit painful as they resurface." The Doctor explained keeping his eyes shut and frowned in concentration. He hadn't meant to go quite so deep.

"So lonely," Bella said sadly. "Always so alone,"

"Your childhood wasn't too lonely." The Doctor said gently. "It looks like you were with Sally and an older boy most of the time –"

"Such a lonely little boy," Bella said, opening her eyes again to stare emotionally at the Doctor.

"Who was?" the Doctor asked absentmindedly, wondering where her memories had taken her.

"You were, Doctor!" she said.

The Doctor let go of Bella's face and opened his eyes. "What?"

"You've always felt so alone, even when you are surrounded by people – even when you are with Jack and me!"

"How did you do that?" the Doctor asked shocked. Only one other person had managed to do that before.

"You can walk through a door from either side once it's been opened." Bella said quietly looking guilty. "Sorry," she added.

The Doctor shook his head. "Don't be, it's happened to me before." He said smiling at her. "I should've known that you were brilliant enough to do it too."

Bella looked up to him with the slightest hint of a smile on her pale face.

"That's more like it," the Doctor said quietly smiling at her warmly.

The strong doors suddenly burst open and a bruised and battered man fell to the ground. The Doctor and Bella quickly jumped up and rushed through the crowd to get to him, where they joined Jack, Manuel and Elder Fode.

"The monsters!" the injured man cried out, thrashing around until Bella grabbed the man's hand.

"What monsters?" the Doctor asked calmly.

"They are most terrible," he cried starting to thrash around even more so the Doctor and Jack (who was beside Bella) held him down at the shoulders to steady him. "Merciless and cruel!"

"What did they look like?" Bella asked soothingly. "Where did you see them?"

"Horrible, disgusting, foul!" the man spat cruelly. "Tall and sickly green with large fat heads and horrible, cruel, black pit less eyes always staring."

Bella froze staring at the man on the floor, fear gripping at her. The Doctor looked from her down to the man.

"Where are they?" the Doctor ordered.

"Waiting outside," he coughed, obviously having troubles breathing.

"What have they done to you man?" Manuel gasped as the man began convulsing.

"Poison, they breathe poison" The man gasped, shuddering before becoming very still, his eyes remaining open.

Manuel gasped in shock and the Doctor and Bella looked to each other as they both let go of the man's body.

"What just happened?" Jack asked, looking from Bella to the Doctor as he too let go of the man's shoulder. The whole entire hall was silent and everyone was looking at each other in silent disbelief. "I didn't think a Nealonian could die?"

"Poison, Jack." The Doctor said quietly as Bella put her hands over the man's eyes to close them. "It inhibits the cells in their bodies that allows the regeneration to take place. If the wounds are bad, they can't heal. Sometimes, like in this case, if it is the right type, the poison can be enough on it's own to kill them, even in the smallest of amounts that humans can normally withstand…"

"This is the first non-natural death we have had in over a thousand years!" Elder Fode said angrily. "These _monsters_ will pay!"

"You don't even know what they are!" the Doctor said standing up.

"If it is a war that they want, Doctor, then it is a war that they shall get!" Elder Fode said dramatically.

"Shouldn't you hear their terms first?" Bella asked, standing up and walking to the Doctor's side. "Find out what it is they want? Or even just identify what species they are?"

"And why would we need to do that?" Manuel asked seriously as Elder Fode rolled his eyes.

"You don't need her advice –"

"Let her speak!" Manuel yelled. "I am tired of not listening to her! She had theories about someone waging war on us –"

"Well, maybe she is in league with these creatures!" Elder Fode yelled.

"I am not in league with Slitheen!" Bella yelled furiously.

Everyone looked to her.

"How do you know of them?" Elder Fode said slyly.

Bella glared at him. "They've tried to invade Earth a few times." She said angrily.

"Then you must know all about them," Elder Fode said.

Bella looked up to the Doctor.

"The Slitheen are cruel," the Doctor explained. "They have no mercy and it doesn't matter what age, gender or race you are. If you are in their way, they will kill you. The females are able to shoot poison from their claws and breathe poisonous fumes. I will bet you that's what killed this man here."

Bella shuddered.

"Well, what kind of weapons can be used against them?" Manuel asked, but the Doctor, Jack, and Bella remained silent.

"Doctor?" asked Manuel pleadingly.

"I am not going to tell you so you can all commit genocide!" the Doctor said hotly.

Manuel nodded in acceptance, but Elder Fode moved forward angrily.

"It seems as though I have no other choice," he said before turning to Manuel. "I am relieving you of your duties as King of Nealon and appointing myself king in order to protect this planet."

"You can't do that!" Bella laughed. "Manuel is _king_, you are just an _elder_!"

"Just watch me!" Elder Fode said turning back to Manuel. "I should have done this as soon as you allowed this sorry excuse for a Nealonian to live!"

Bella gasped and the Doctor held out his left arm and moved her behind him.

Fode clicked his fingers and six guards grabbed Manuel, the Doctor and Jack (two apiece).

"No!" Bella cried as the Doctor pushed her out of the way. "Let them go!"

"I don't think so, Bella." Fode said grabbing her arm. "Now tell me how to destroy this new enemy, or I will execute the Doctor and _Captain _Jack Harkness right here in front of you!"

"No!" Bella cried again as everyone holding a gun now pointed them at the Doctor and Jack. "Leave them alone!"

"Tell me what I want to know and they will live." Fode said to Bella.

"Bella, don't worry about us –"Jack started, but came short as Fode raised his arm and everyone cocked their weapons.

"I'll tell you!" Bella yelled frantically as the Doctor and Jack struggled to free themselves. "Your guns might work, but…" she paused, clearly not wanting to give away the secret.

"I would hurry if I were you, Bella." Fode said calmly. "I am quite eager to see the last of the pompous Time Lord's dead."

Bella's face lost the little colour that it had remaining. "Slitheen are primarily made up of living calcium, meaning that acetic acid destroys them."

"Good," Fode said, as Bella looked down, ashamed of herself.

"I dunno if it will work though." Bella said quietly.

"Why not?" ordered Fode.

"Because these Slitheen probably aren't wearing compression field controllers around their necks because they haven't had to use body suits which weakens them." Bella said. "They have just launched a full blown attack."

"Well," Fode smiled. "We will just have to make the acetic acid a little bit stronger wont we?"

Bella glared at him. "Let them go!"

"I don't think so," Fode sneered, still holding onto Bella's arm tightly. "Why would I let them go just so they could stop me? You really do need to use that brain of yours once in a while, girl."

The Doctor saw Bella's face burn before she tried to yank her arm free of Fode's grip.

"Come child," Fode said. "Since you have all the knowledge, you shall be my protector."

Bella finally managed to yank her arm free and she walked backwards into two more guards, where she instantly started to struggle.

"Let her go!" the Doctor yelled furiously.

"Oh, no, Doctor. Bella is going out into the front lines." Fode sneered.

"No you can't!" The Doctor said, fear etching its way into his voice as the guards practically dragged her out of the hall. "If she gets hurt she will die! She can't heal as fast as you!"

"Yes, I know." Fode laughed. "And the odds don't look very good do they?"

"Don't do this Fode," the Doctor said dangerously, with just a hint of desperation in his voice. "If anything happens to her –"

Fode just laughed and headed out of the strong doors.

* * *

**_Authors note: Dun dun dun!_**


	36. Ep7 The Last Nealonian CH6

**_Arthor's note: Its the last chapter for this episode, so I hope you enjoy it :) One part towards the end could be considered a bit gorey, so this is your heads up; there will be blood._**

**_

* * *

_**

"FODE!" the Doctor yelled before turning to Manuel. "Manuel, we need to do something –"

Manuel nodded. "Guards, I am still your king, no matter what a power-hungry deranged old fool would like you to think! Now unhand me and my friends!"

The six guards all exchanged quick, confused glances before instantly letting the three of them go. "Sorry, my lord!" they each said, bowing.

Manuel held up his hand to stop their grovelling. "Doctor," he said quickly. "How much danger is Bella in?"

"More than you could ever know!" the Doctor said hurriedly, thinking of the time he had first met her.

Manuel nodded. "Then you must go to her." He said. "But how can I prepare my people for such a ruthless attack?"

The Doctor exchanged a glance with Jack.

"Get all the vinegar that you can find," the Doctor instructed. "The Slitheen are a deadly enemy to have at the best of times."

Manuel nodded sadly. "Find her Doctor!"

The Doctor didn't need to be told twice. He turned on his heal and headed out the open doors with Jack behind him as Manuel started his call to arms speech.

"Doctor, do you think the Slitheen are here for Bella?" Jack asked as they ran through the mud and debris.

"I don't know, but I don't feel like letting her be exposed to them!" the Doctor said in answer.

As they skidded around a corner they saw Bella and Fode surrounded by a circle of unconscious or dead (they couldn't tell) guards. In front of them was one tall Slitheen.

"Doctor we have to stop this!" Jack said.

"I know –"

Bella suddenly screamed and they both looked to her and saw Fode push her into the Slitheen. The Slitheen grabbed her and held a needle up to her neck and Bella struggled against the green claws holding her, but she couldn't escape its tight grasp.

"Bella!" the Doctor yelled running forward, fear running through him.

Suddenly a glass jar fell from Bella's pocket and she tried her hardest to catch it before it smashed on the ground.

The Slitheen screamed and pushed Bella to the ground where she looked up to the Slitheen horrified as it slipped over onto the ground where it absorbed the vinegar before it exploded. Green slime covered Bella and the ground surrounding her.

Bella stood up, horrified by what had just happened as Manuel ran past the Doctor and Jack (who had both stopped) and stopped beside his granddaughter.

"Bella," he said softly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She shrunk away from his hand and turned to face them all, tears escaping her eyes.

"Bella?" the Doctor asked moving forward a few paces. She looked to him before running to him and hugging him. The Doctor put his arms around her and he could feel her shaking.

"I killed it," she gasped. "Oh my God, I killed it!"

"Bella, that wasn't your fault." The Doctor said soothingly. "That was an accident." A well timed accident, he had to admit, but an accident none the less.

"Jack, take Bella back to the hall."

Bella pushed away and looked up to him. "I'm not leaving you."

He placed his hands on her arms. "I will be right behind you."

Bella hesitated, and then took hold of Jack's outstretched hand and they both headed to the hall. The Doctor watched them go before turning to Manuel, who had been talking to Fode.

"Doctor, there is something that I need to ask you and I understand full well that you would like to reprimand me over how Bella has been treated these last five years but there is something far more pressing than that. Please do not interrupt me; it is of the utmost importance." Manuel said, shocking the Doctor into silence. "In your absence did you tell anyone of our weakness?"

The Doctor stared at him feeling dumbstruck. "No, I didn't have a chance. We were only gone for about ten minutes. But I would never – not when it would endanger Bella – I couldn't."

Manuel nodded, looking most perplexed.

"Why?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"No one but our own race knows about our own weakness." Manuel explained. "But you know that already, for I thought you were the only exception. Yet these creatures know of it also. Someone must of told them and I can think only of one other person, but he has been dead for a very long time –"

He suddenly stopped and his eyes widened. The Doctor turned and looked behind him and saw fifty Slitheen approaching them.

"What do they want?" the Doctor asked quickly. "Why are they attacking?"

"They want something that I will not give them." He said determinedly before walking off in the same direction as Bella and Jack had, the Doctor following angrily.

They turned the corner and found everyone with swords and guns, the swords dripping in what smelt like vinegar.

"We are ready to fight, my lord." One of the women said.

Manuel nodded before turning to the Doctor, who had stopped beside Bella and Jack. "I do not expect you to fight and if truth be told I would prefer you not to."

"Not a chance," Jack said, letting go of Bella's hand and moving forward. "I've had some experience with the Slitheen and I have a pretty cool trick. You might want my help."

"Very well," Manuel said bowing slightly. "I appreciate your willingness to help, arm yourself.

Jack smiled and moved over to a table, leaving Bella standing feeling hopeless. The Doctor looked to her and took her hand.

"You and Bella should leave, Doctor." Manuel said. "Leave in your Blue Box. War is not a place in which either of you belong."

"I'm not leaving without Jack." The Doctor said.

Manuel's face flushed angrily. "So be it!" he walked away, his people following him as Jack walked back to them smiling slightly.

"You can leave you know," he told them.

"I'm not leaving anyone else behind on this planet!" the Doctor said heatedly.

Jack shrugged then smiled reassuringly at Bella before hugging her tightly. "You know," he said, still holding onto her. "Seeing as I am going off to war and there is so much uncertainty, I think this is my last chance to do this –"He pulled her closure to him and put one hand on her cheek and kissed her quite passionately before letting her go and walking away, leaving her breathless.

The Doctor rolled his eyes as he ignored the jealous feeling that was rising in his stomach. The sounds of the battle arose and the Doctor and Bella moved uncomfortably. The explosions began soon after and the Doctor grabbed Bella's hand and tried looking for somewhere safer. Bella suddenly gave a cry and ran forwards.

"BELLA!" the Doctor yelled. He ran after her and saw her collapse to the muddy ground beside a body. It was Jack.

As the rain fell on them now, a Slitheen approached Bella, who took hold of Jack's vinegary sword and stood up. "What did you do to him?"

The Slitheen looked at her and cackled before Jack gave a gasp.

"That was nothing compared to being buried alive!" he said breathing heavily before looking up and seeing Bella staring at him, panic now on his face.

As Bella looked at Jack, the Slitheen snatched the vinegary sword from her hands and before she could do anything other than look back to the Slitheen; it drove the sword into Bella's stomach.

"NO!" The Doctor yelled, running forward.

Jack yelled angrily and stood up as the Slitheen pulled out the sword from Bella's stomach and shot it with his own gun, initiating a string of violent attacks. The Doctor reached Bella just as she fell backwards. He caught her and sunk to the ground holding her. There was blood everywhere. He noticed movement beside one of the house and he looked up to see a young woman. It was the young woman he had seen talking to Bella in Scotland. He blinked before she disappeared.

"Bella?" the Doctor asked.

Bella gasped for air and looked up to the Doctor. "Don't leave me," she managed to gasp.

"I won't, I promise." The Doctor said, slightly tearfully. "Just don't leave me!"

She gave a tiny smile and closed her eyes as a Slitheen exploded near them and Jack reappeared in green slime.

"Is she alright?" he asked quickly.

Manuel ran to them and knelt beside his granddaughter, who was slipping in and out of consciousness. "What was she stabbed with?"

"The sword," Jack said.

"Not poison?"

"No," Jack answered shaking his head.

"Good," Manuel said, sounding generally relieved. "Doctor, you must take her away to keep her safe! She will heal slowly, but she will be fine. She will live a very long life to the age of around five hundred in human years, maybe more, never aging. Bella could spend her long life with a lonely Time Lord…"

The Doctor looked down at Bella in his arms, her eyes closed and her breathing heavy. He would like nothing more than to spend five hundred years with her travelling the universe, but would she want that after he abandoned her?

He looked around at all the wounded, some healing rapidly, others collapsing on the ground.

"You cannot save the rest of us, Doctor." Manuel said. "Not now. If we had listen to Bella five years ago when she first warned us that there might be some kind of attack in the near future, we might have been prepared and we might have deserved saving. But you can save her!"

The Doctor quickly lifted Bella up as he stood. "I will come back for you!"

"No!" Manuel yelled. "You must never come back here, you must protect Bella! I regret that I never treated her with enough love and respect, but I could not with the superstitious old fools on the council. They had condemned her for her mother's mistakes. I could do nothing but try my hardest to protect her…"

"I know," the Doctor said. "I saw that in your reactions earlier."

Manuel nodded as another house near them exploded. "Do something for me now, Doctor. Promise me you will never leave her again."

"I promise," the Doctor said truthfully, thinking that there was going to be only one way to separate them now, and that would be Bella's decision to leave him. He hoped that that would never come.

"Now, go." Manuel said sadly, taking one last look at his granddaughter before turning and walking into the battle once more.

The Doctor and Jack walked as quickly as they could back to the TARDIS. As Jack fumbled with the lock, the Doctor looked down once again to Bella, whose necklace was now showing. It was her TARDIS key. _She'd worn it all these long years_, the Doctor thought hopefully to himself.

"It's open," Jack said, holding both the doors open so the Doctor could rush in. He placed Bella gently on the yellow seat where Jack held her in place as the Doctor pulled the leaver that fired up the klaxon and made the Time Rotor rise and fall.

As they landed the Doctor stood still for a moment and looked down at himself. His brown suit was covered in Bella's blood. He wondered how his overcoat had managed to not get blood on it.

"Doctor, where are we?" Jack asked.

"Back at Torchwood," he said, taking off his long light brown overcoat and placing it around Bella, who was shivering, before lifting her into his arms again. He followed Jack out of the TARDIS slowing into the Torchwood hub.

They were on the same level as Jack's office and Gwen Cooper was sitting at the middle computer.

"Back already, Jack?" She asked smiling, not looking up from her computer.

Jack didn't answer her; he just continued walking straight to his office. Ianto Jones came out of a round doorway and looked at Jack's troubled expression before looking to the Doctor carrying a bloody Bella and gasped. "Jack, what happened?"

Gwen, hearing Ianto's gasp, finally looked up and jumped up in shock, her face white. "Oh my God, what happened?"

Jack held open his office door open for the Doctor, who walked in and placed Bella down gently on the three-seater lounge chair beside Jack's desk and sat on the side of the lounge too.

"Ianto, I need warm water and blankets!" Jack said to Ianto urgently, who had (along with Gwen) followed them into the office.

"Yes, sir," Ianto said before running out of the room to get exactly what Jack needed.

"Jack?" Gwen asked, touching his arm.

Jack turned around to her and she was surprised to see tears in his eyes, before he hugged her emotionally.

"Doctor?" said a very small and weak voice.

"Bella!" the Doctor said, leaning over her a bit more.

She stirred and opened her eyes and found the Doctor's worried face leaning over her. "Where are we? What happened? Where's Manuel and the Slitheen? And Jack, where is Jack?" her breathing increased as she began to panic.

"You're okay, Bella." The Doctor said soothingly, taking her hand and putting a hand on the side of her face. "Jack is here and the Slitheen are not. You are back at Torchwood and you're safe now. I will look after you."

Bella looked straight into his eyes. "Are you only doing that because Manuel told you too?" she asked him quietly.

"No," the Doctor said, feeling slightly hurt, but he knew he deserved a bit of mistrust from her at the moment. "Because I want to and I was an idiot for leaving you behind in the first place. Will you still travel with me?"

Bella smiled. "Yeah,"

The Doctor grinned at her before it faded as he knew what he needed to try and do now. "You know that I will never leave you again, but there is something I need to go and –"

"I know," Bella said sadly, looking down.

"Here," the Doctor said, taking his left hand from her face and reaching into his pocket for his Sonic Screwdriver and handing it to her. "You know have my Sonic Screwdriver _and_ my lovely overcoat. Please look after them until I get back."

She smiled weakly and nodded as he stood up and walked to the door.

"Be back soon," he said with a forced smile before walking out. He hated leaving her already.

Bella felt a tear escape her eyes as he walked out of Jack's door, and as the sound of the TARDIS's dematerialisation filled the hub, she struggled to hold back the tears. Jack came and sat beside her on the lounge and he put his arm around her and pulled her close.

The Doctor stood in the remains of the Nealon city with various things still on fire and not one single Nealonian left alive. In the light from the rising sun he could see through the thick smoke the pale green sky and some Ood standing in the distance, all joined in a circle. He could hear them mourning for their own loss and for Bella, the last Nealonian in the entire Universe…

"Now Bella is just like me." The Doctor said emotionally, a few tears escaping his eyes as he turned his back on the Ood and the destroyed civilisation and walked back into the TARDIS. As the TARDIS dematerialised, two figures that the Doctor had not seen stood watching; a tall, greying man and an even taller metal man.

The Doctor stood in Jack's doorway, just watching Bella asleep on the lounge, sitting up and waiting for him, and Jack fast asleep at his desk, leaning back on his chair. He walked forward into the room and sat on the end of the lounge.

Bella stirred and opened her eyes and found the Doctor looking at her.

He saw relief wash over every inch of her face before she looked at his expression and her face became paler.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her voice waking Jack up.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, his voice shaking violently. "I got there too late. They're all gone. All of them just like the Time Lords."

Bella bit her lip so she wouldn't cry, but tears still managed to escape as she watched the Doctor put his face in his hands. She crawled to him (which was quite painful for her) and put her arms around him to offer him some comfort and to show him that she didn't blame him for anything.

Guilt, tremendous guilt, flooded over the Doctor and he wrapped his arms around her and buried his head in her shoulder. Surprised by the Doctor's sudden breakdown, Bella held tightly onto him and looked to Jack, who looked back slightly stunned.

"I'm so sorry Bella!" the Doctor said, his voice shaking violently. "This was all my fault, I should never have left you there..."

Bella looked up to Jack, who nodded and quietly stood and made his way out the door, closing it behind him.

"Doctor," Bella said gently. "It wasn't your fault. It would seem that the Slitheen wanted revenge for what happen back home."

"They _were_ after you," the Doctor gasped, horrified, looking at her.

She nodded. "Not to take me anywhere this time, just to kill me." She said simply, shrugging. "Only I should have seen it was them years ago. I knew that there was an attack coming because the Ood warned me, but no one would listen to me. They might have been a pack of pompous, superstitious old cotters, but none of them deserved to... you know..." she added, struggling to accept that they had all gone. "My grandfather knew you better than you might have thought." She smiled ever-so-slightly.

The Doctor frowned.

"He knew you'd come back." She told him. "I am ashamed to admit it, but even when I had given up, he would look at me as if he knew something that I didn't, a look as if he knew everything would turn out okay in the end."

The Doctor looked away, feeling sick.

"He admired you," Bella said.

"Who did?" the Doctor asked, feeling confused.

"My grandfather," she answered him sadly, unable to look him in the eye anymore for the memory of her grandfather made her want to cry. "He said that the Time Lords were awe-inspiring. Powerful beings who never interfered – well, most of the time at least. He told me about Gallifrey, about the domed citadel, the Eye of Harmony and the burnt orange sky. And he showed me the planet. I didn't know that we were so close to Gallifrey until he showed me and I didn't realise how hard it would have been being this close."

The Doctor remained silent. His hearts ached as he listened to the awe in her voice and he wanted nothing more than to go home to Gallifrey and to take her with him, to show her how beautiful it really was.

"He also told me that my father took my mother back to Earth with him. He never did tell me how though. I asked him why he didn't go after them to try and get her back, because he really did seem to despise my father and his reason; he didn't want to risk unleashing war and destroying a planet that a lonely Time Lord could call home if he wanted too..."

The Doctor looked to her, seeing pain in her eyes. He had become overwhelmed with the sacrifice Manuel had made for him, and now for his granddaughter. He hugged Bella tightly and she held tightly onto him, feeling the safest she had in five years.

"I will never leave you again," he whispered.

"I know," Bella said quietly. "And just so you know, I'm not going to leave you either. I mean, that should go without saying!" she said lightly, making the Doctor smile.

* * *

_**Next Time: The Doctor lands the TARDIS on a space ship modeled after that of an old sailing ship with a familiar race of mind reading aliens on board. Are they up to the same mischeif as they were last time, or are these ones different?**_


	37. Ep8 The Eternals CH1

_**Author's note: So any Classic Doctor Who fans out there (particually the fifth Doctor) may possibly recognise The alien race (I use the term loosely for I don't really know if you could classify them as alien) from the episodes called "Enlightenment", part of the Black Guardian Trilogy. The episode was written by Barbara Clegg and was aired in 1983 I do believe. So the Eternals belong to her, not me. I just take them on a bit of a different adventure :D I do make a few references to that story, so if you haven't seen it and don't understand anything, just let me know. I do believe that a reference was made to the Eternals in Series three in the episode "The Shakespear Code". Something about it had been the Eternals who banished the Carrionites in the first place. :) I hope you enjoy, it's a bit of a long episode this, :P**_

* * *

Ep8 The Eternals CH1

Bella stepped out of the TARDIS and took in her surroundings. It was dark, which was the first thing she noticed. She squinted as her adjusted and she could make out large wooden crates surrounding her with a picture of an anchor on them. _Obviously some kind of brand_, she thought to herself.

The TARDIS doors opened again and the Doctor stepped out and looked around him, his eyes adjusting quicker than Bella's had. "Where are we?" he said as Bella looked up to him.

"I was about to ask you that very same question," Bella said smiling.

The Doctor cleared his throat and looked around them again. "No, I know where we are – course I do!" He moved forward and knelt to begin to examine the crates.

Bella chuckled fondly to herself as she waited patiently for him to get his bearings. She had a wild guess as to where they might be, but she thought it best for the Doctor's ego to let him say it out loud first.

"Hmm, a lot of crates and some ropes," the Doctor observed to himself. "Feels like the ground is moving… We are either on a boat or a plane"

"I would have said a boat," Bella said amused, "rather than a plane. In fact I would go so far as to say that we were on some kind of sailing ship."

The Doctor stood up and frowned at her for a moment. "Why do you always have to be right?"

"Well, apparently I have an '_exceptionally bright mind'_," She quoted him smiling charmingly.

The Doctor grinned at her broadly before his smile faded, quilt rising quickly in his stomach, the memory of what he had done to her forming in his mind. Bella saw this and her smile faded too.

"Doctor, don't." she said quietly.

He opened his mouth to say he was sorry but she cut him off.

"Please don't say you're sorry again, Doctor," she said wincing ever-so-slightly. "I don't blame you for what happened. It wasn't your fault. We need to move on… Besides, you've apologised too much anyway…"

The Doctor nodded, still feeling unbearably guilty but made an effort for it to not show on his face for Bella's sake. He felt like she was far to understanding towards him especially since he didn't think he deserved it from her, but no matter what he would be forever grateful that she wanted to travel with him still.

"So, we're on a sailing ship then," the Doctor concluded and he saw Bella's expression lighten. "I haven't been on one of these in years. The last boat I was on was the Titanic Space Liner."

"You can hardly call that a _boat_, Doctor," Bella laughed.

He shrugged, smiling down at her.

A door somewhere above them creaked open and they instantly stiffened as a tall man carrying a lantern came down the set of stairs, throwing light over them and the cargo hold.

They both looked up to the man who had stopped halfway down the stairs to look at them smiling.

"Hello Doctor and Bella," he said kindly looking at each of them. "Do not be alarmed, dear Bella, we mean neither of you any harm. Please, come upstairs to the bridge, my captain would love to meet you both."

He turned and began walking up the stairs and Bella looked to the Doctor.

"How did he know our names?" She whispered when the man had left the room.

The Doctor frowned, the whole situation feeling very familiar to him. "Come on," he said making his way to the stairs.

"But Doctor," Bella said hurrying after him, grabbing onto his arm as she slipped on the wet floor. "It could be a trap or something I mean how else could he have known our names?"

"Bella relax," he told her calmly as she let go of his arm. "If it was a trap then why did the man let us make our own way up to the bridge?"

"To lure us into a false sense of security, maybe?" suggested Bella.

The Doctor smiled at her and began walking up the wooden stairs.

"But how did he know our names?" she called from the bottom of the stairs at him.

"I believe he read our minds," the Doctor frowned as he headed out of the door.

"Read our minds?" Bella repeated to herself before realising that he had walked off without her. "Oi, wait up!" she called running up the stairs to catch up to him. "What do you mean he read our minds? He looked like an eighteenth century midshipmen or something similar. I know some people claim to be mind readers and clairvoyants, but humans can't actually do that and he would have to be a human."

"Would he now?" the Doctor asked smiling at her when she had slowed to a walk beside him. "Just because someone looks like a human doesn't mean they are. Look at us if you need an example. But to be perfectly honest, you lot look like Time Lords, considering we were here first!"

"Alright then, I should know better," Bella said smiling in defeat.

The Doctor grinned at her.

"But if he wasn't a human, what was he?"

"I can only guess at this stage, but I think we may have come across the Eternals." He told her quietly as they walked side-by-side down the wooden corridor.

"What's an Eternal?" she asked eagerly. "Have you met them before?"

"I've met them once before, yes." He told her. "I was a different man back then. The Eternals I guess you could say are higher than the Time Lords because the dwell in eternity itself. They normally exist outside of time but they somehow manage to come into this existence when they feel like it. It might have something to do with the Black and White Guardians, because the last time I came across them there were a whole heap of them racing to find enlightenment and I had to stop them."

"How come?" she asked him curiously.

"Because enlightenment was anything they wanted it to be, therefore potentially dangerous to the entire universe.

"How did you stop it?"

"I had to win the race."

"And what did you do with the enlightenment?"

"Nothing," he said. "I didn't want it."

Bella surveyed him closely.

"I like not knowing everything," he told her winking, making her laugh. "The day I know everything what's there to keep me going?"

She nodded in agreement as they came to another set of stairs. They climbed them and found the same man they had met with before waiting for them.

* * *

**_Author's note: Just out of curiosity, what does everyone think of Bella? As a person, as a character, as a companion, whatever, I am just eagar to know what you think of her :) _**


	38. Ep8 The Eternals CH2

**Ep8 The Eternals CH2**

The man was roughly the Doctor's height but he was wider sideways. He wasn't fat, but just built with more muscle than the Doctor was. He had blond hair and dark blue eyes and he wore a dark navy blue sailing uniform that looked like it belonged in the early 1900's.

"I am so glad you decided to join us," he said bowing respectfully as Bella watched him carefully. "There is no reason to mistrust me, Miss Bella. As I said before, we mean you no harm. You are merrily our guests here thats all. You can come and go as you please."

Bella nodded, but the Doctor didn't need to read her mind to know that she still didn't trust him.

"My name is Commodore Ryan, second in command to Captain Brooks." He told them. "The captain is waiting in there to meet you both."

Ryan opened the large wooden doors for them and they walked in. Another tall man, this time with neat brown hair stood beside a shorter plump man in a white sailors uniform who was steering the large wooden wheel. They both stood looking out into the dark sky.

"Welcome," the captain said turning to the Doctor and Bella. "Your guess about us is absolutely correct, Doctor, your memories serve you very well. We are indeed the Eternals, however we are merrily sailing for the sheer enjoyment of it, there is no race."

"And the crew?" the Doctor asked already knowing the answer.

"Why do you ask when you already know the answer?" Captain Brooks answered with the slightest hint of a smile. "Yes they are human and yes we are in space."

"I already know that," the Doctor said felling slightly puzzled.

"I was not answering you, Doctor, they were Bella's questions," Brooks said, looking to Bella.

The Doctor looked down to her beside him, as she jerked her head to make him look behind them. He did, and discovered the wall behind them covered in screens, flashing buttons and various shaped levers. _A bit of a giveaway_, he thought to himself.

"But these people – these men," Bella started, rounding on the Captain who was listening to her avidly even though there was no need, he could already hear her thoughts. He could have answered her already but he politely let her finish her rant. "Surely they would have noticed they weren't sailing the _seven seas_? I mean, I am assuming that they would have to go on deck to attend to sails or something. It would seem as though you have paid enough attention to the small detail, considering I slipped on water in the cargo hold."

The captain smiled at her. "Such a brilliant mind!" he said watching her. "They have all noticed, yes, but most of them think that they are dreaming and all we need to do is give them a bit of liquid courage."

"Let me guess," Bella said somewhat heatedly. "You give them brandy?"

"They do not complain," Ryan said watching Bella intently.

"And what happens to them when you are done with them?" Bella ordered. "Or if anything should happen like falling over board, for instance?"

"They are sent back to where we found them," Ryan explained. "They wake up having no memory of their time on board this vessel. They cannot get hurt on this ship."

Bella thought about this for a moment. "So why do you need them then?"

Both Brooks and Ryan smiled at her.

"Such curiosity," Ryan laughed.

"You may explain this if you wish, Doctor." Brooks said still smiling.

"The Eternals have no emotions," the Doctor told her." They don't feel anything unless they have someone like the Ephemerals around them – the Ephemerals being creatures like us."

"You can't feel anything at all?" she asked them, her tone of voice softening now.

"No," the captain said. "And it must be said that the humans have the widest variety in all emotions and thoughts."

"It's been nearly thirty years and you still depend on humans!" the Doctor stated.

Captain Brooks looked to him. "I think it's a bit more than that now. We enjoy their company –"

"But that's an emotion, a feeling." The Doctor said smiling. "You can't enjoy our company unless _we_ enjoy yours."

"True, I suppose," Brooks admitted nodding before looking to Bella and laughing slightly.

The Doctor looked down to Bella too. She was staring at the large bay windows before them, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open. He followed her gaze and saw the Earth ahead of them.

"Even after all you have seen in your long life, Doctor, you still find the sight of Earth suspended in space beautiful." Brooks said to him.

"Seeing any planet suspended in space is beautiful," Bella said, making the Doctor smile down at her.

"Would you like to go up on deck and have a look?" Ryan asked Bella, who looked over to him. He smiled and made his way over to the doors.

"I didn't say I would go did I?" Bella asked him frowning.

"You didn't have to, Bella." Ryan smiled.

Bella glared at him as the Doctor chuckled, beginning to follow Ryan out the doors.

The three of them made their way to the foot of the stairs and Bella, seeing a potential problem, opened her mouth to speak.

"We do not need space suits on, Bella." Ryan assured her as he walked up the stairs, the Doctor and Bella following him, the latter frowning angrily.

"Can you _not_ read my mind?" Bella asked him angrily. "I don't particularly like it."

"I know," Ryan smiled as the Doctor chuckled again. He opened the door at the top of the stairs and held it open for his guests, Bella glaring at him as she walked past him.

"So why do you continue –"Bella's voice failed her as she turned away from Ryan. Her mouth dropped as she moved forward, looking out over the ships wooden railings.

The Earth was now below them, turning ever-so-slightly. Clouds were making their way over Australia and New Zealand and they covered most of Asia. She rested her hands on the wooden railings as she looked past Earth and saw Mars faintly in the distance and the Doctor came to stand beside her, leaning on the railings and looking out to the universe.

"It's…" Bella started, struggling to find the appropriate words.

"I know," the Doctor said softly, smiling as he looked down to Earth.

"I know I've seen it like this before, on the Judoon ship, but I guess it didn't really hit me that I was seeing the Earth suspended in space!" she said, her whole face alight with amazement. "It's funny, but when I was younger, I used to lie outside on the cold, damp grass at night and look to the moon and all the stars. I used to hope that someone would invent space ships that we could all use without having to be an Astronaught. I'd wish that I could travel across the stars and visit all the different galaxies." She looked to the Doctor, who grinned before she laughed at herself, her cheeks going slightly red. She didn't normally tell people that. "Haha, and look at where I am now! I still can't believe it and it's all thanks to you."

The Doctor shrugged and smiled. "I'm good like that."

She laughed at him before added quietly, "thank you,"

He smiled at her gently. "You are very welcome."

They smiled at each other for a few moments before the ship gave a slight lurch.

"Ah, you feel that?" the Doctor asked Bella as she nodded. "Solar winds, best way to fly a sailing space ship. Ah…" he said squinting into the distance as he noticed another ship. "Who's that?"

"That must be Adorn and her crew," Ryan said moving to them, looking in the same direction as the Doctor was.

"Looks like a pirate ship," Bella noted eagerly.

"Mmm," the Doctor agreed.

"Maybe it's the Black Pearl or the Flying Dutchman?" she added laughing. "Full with scurvy pirates, arr!" she said, imitating a pirate.

"You've seen way to many films," the Doctor said fighting the urge to laugh at her.

Bella sighed and said seriously, "I know."

The Doctor grinned and turned to Ryan, "more of your lot?"

Ryan frowned slightly. "Yes, it seems so." He said slowly looking to the Doctor, whose eyes had narrowed.

_Was that a subtle hint that something wasn't quite right_? The Doctor asked himself.

"Can you not read their minds?" Bella asked him curiously.

"Of course, but they are a long way away, which makes it more difficult to hear one another's thoughts." Ryan explained. "Familiarity with one another also helps. As it is, I have never met those Eternals on that ship so at the present time, I cannot read their thoughts. I know them purely by reputation."

The Doctor nodded and moved off. "I'll be back in a moment. I just need to talk to the captain about the mechanics of this brilliant ship."

"I'll come," Bella said making a move to follow him.

"Nah, stay here," he smiled, tugging at his earlobe. "It'll be boring," he added, remembering that had he really be going to talk mechanics, she probably _wouldn't_ be bored, it probably would have fascinated her.

"It will be," Ryan told her nodding. "I have no idea why he would even want to know about the things he wants to ask."

The Doctor smiled thankfully at Ryan. He didn't particularly feel like lying to Bella more than he just had.

"Oh, okay then," she said eventually, watching the Doctor carefully.

"Won't be long," he said cheerfully before turning on his heel, well aware that she had sounded like this before. Not mistrusting (as the Doctor thought she should be more towards him after what he'd done) but more suspicious.

Bella watched him suspiciously until he disappeared down into the stair well and that was when she finally looked back out over the Earth.

"You seem worried." Ryan observed.

Bella glared up at him. "I wish you wouldn't do that!"

"Yes," Ryan said. "You must forgive me, but your mind is quite unique and very interesting. One does not often have the pleasure of reading such a mind."

Bella looked at him, unsure of what to say to a comment like that.

"You needn't say anything, Bella." Ryan smiled. "I was just stating a fact, your mind is incredible. I must admit that I find yours slightly more interesting than the Doctor's."

Bella frowned. "You are aware that he's a Time Lord, right?"

"You are confused as to why I think that?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "He's done so much, in nine hundred and six years of life I might add and been to so many wonderful places."

"So have you," Ryan said. "You are so very special. You're half human, half Nealonian, the last of her kind."

Bella's stomach dropped uncomfortably as he said this and she looked down, trying not to think about what had happened.

"I am sorry if I have caused any pain, Bella I didn't mean – what are you doing?"

"A person's mind isn't meant to be read like a book! I don't like the thought of you being able to walk freely through my mind." Bella said, trying to blank out all her thoughts.

"You – that's impossible!" Ryan exclaimed. "I can't read your thoughts!"

"Good," Bella said triumphantly.


	39. Ep8 The Eternals CH3

**_Author's note: First and foremost, I wish to apologise for taking so long to get this chapter up! Unfortunately the computer crashed and we had to get a new one. But, all is now good, and I shall stop talking and let you read! :D_**

* * *

**Ep8 The Eternals CH3**

The Doctor walked back into the bridge with the Captain and the human sailor and opened his mouth to talk before Brooks turned and smiled at him.

"You are correct in thinking that something is not quite right." Brook told him. "Ryan did not say so on deck because he sensed that you did not wish to cause any worry for Bella, which you did anyway by you insisting that she stayed there."

The Doctor groaned inwardly.

"Bella is far more observant than you give her credit for." Brooks continued smiling. "But that ship, it is captained by Adorn and its name is not the Flying Dutchman, though it does seem an appropriate name by Bella's memories of the Earth legends. And the crew certainly aren't becoming part of the ship, either."

"They aren't exactly friendly then?" the Doctor asked.

"Not particularly, no." Brooks frowned. "Quite the opposite really from what I have heard, Adorn took her human crew from the Earth period of the sixteenth century."

"Pirates?" the Doctor asked.

"I imagine so, yes." Brooks told him, avoiding his gaze.

"Captain," he said, knowing that he shouldn't have to ask this question. "Are we in danger?"

"I am not sure," Brooks admitted. "What Ryan explained to you was correct, but even when I try to contact them there is nothing. They have somehow managed to block their thoughts from us, which makes me rather suspicious of their intentions." He suddenly smiled. "They have blocked their thoughts in much the same way as Bella has just done, although I do not think it is that innocent, nor for the same reasons."

"Bella what?" the Doctor asked.

Brooks merrily smiled and looked to the doors, at which point Bella walked in looking rather pleased with herself, followed by Ryan who looked disgruntled. The Doctor looked to her feeling a bit confused as she smiled sweetly at him.

"She's somehow managed to close her mind," Ryan said flatly.

Bella grinned. "Wasn't all that hard, all I had to do was imagine a very large and intricate door."

The Doctor laughed fondly at her and Brooks smiled.

"Sorry Ryan, old chap," the Doctor said still laughing. "I taught her that one, guess you're stuck with my thoughts now!"

"Captain," said the human sailor. "We have another ship pulling up aside us, sir."

"It's the pirate ship isn't it?" Bella asked dully. "Coming to make us walk the plank or to sink our battleship?"

Just as she finished saying her sentence the whole ship gave a fantastic lurch, knocking each one of them to their feet as there were explosions to the rear of the vessel.

"I take it it's the sinking one, then." Bella gasped.

"Come on," the Doctor said pulling Bella up off the floor and getting his Sonic Screwdriver out from his pinstriped jacket pocket.

"Don't worry about us, Doctor," Brooks said. "Just get yourselves out!"

"Bella, get back to the TARDIS!" the Doctor ordered, striding away from her to the control panel.

"What?" Bella said. "I am not going anywhere without you!"

"I will take her, Doctor." Ryan said.

"No you bloody will not!" Bella said stubbornly.

The Doctor turned and looked to her. "Bella, I need to raise the defence systems here, I promise I'll be right behind you –"

"He's telling the truth, trust me!" Ryan told her.

"Trust you? You told me the Doctor wanted to talk to the captain about mechanics!"

"Bella, I have longer legs than you," the Doctor said weakly as he continued to sonic the controls.

She looked over to him frowning. "Yes, you do and is that a problem?"

"No, but because I have longer legs I can run faster than you, therefore I _will_ catch up to you!"

Bella thought about that for a moment and nodded but still hesitated.

"Please, Bella?" the Doctor pleaded.

She sighed. "You better run fast, space man!"

He grinned at her as she followed Ryan out the doors. He continued working, sonicing everything that he could possibly get to before looking up to the captain. "There," he said as he put his sonic screwdriver back in his pocket.

"You needn't have done that," Brooks said quietly. "We don't actually die as such."

"I know," he said. "But you aren't doing any harm. It's your friends I'm more concerned about."

Brooks smiled.

"She's waiting for me just down the hall, isn't she?" he asked smiling ever-so-slightly.

"Go, Doctor," Brooks said chuckling.

The Doctor smiled in farewell before bounding out of the wooden walled helm into the hallway and down the wooden stairs. He turned around the corner and stopped.

"I thought I told you to wait for me in the TARDIS?" he said sternly to Bella, who was waiting for him at the other end of the corridor.

She looked to him and pointed to the door beside her. "She's right through –"

The ship gave a sudden jolt before beginning to shake violently. Then there was a blinding flash of white light and an ear-splitting ripping sound tore through the air.

"Bella!" the Doctor yelled as he fell backwards into the wall. He slid down it onto the floor where he covered his head with his arms to protect his eyes from the blinding light and his ears from the terrible noise. The ship continued to shake violently for what felt like ages until suddenly it all stopped.

He slowly lowered his arms from around his head and he felt his mouth drop in shock and horror. He coughed as he inhaled dust into his lungs before he jumped up and yelled "BELLA!"


	40. Ep8 The Eternals CH4

**Ep8 The Eternals CH4**

Bella regained consciousness and coughed as she breathed in a mouthful of dust. Realising she had a large sheet of wood on her; she pushed herself up on all fours to get it off her. She looked to her right and saw Ryan stirring underneath part of the ships wall. It was then that she noticed that someone was missing.

"Doctor," she gasped jumping to her feet, her head swaying slightly. She scanned the rubble in front of her before turning to her left to look at the rest of the hallway but it wasn't the hallway that she found.

Her mouth fell.

It was like the middle part of the ship had just vanished. The hallway that had been there before seemed to have just disappeared. There was nothing more than space between the part of the ship that Bella was on and the front part of the ship.

She saw the Doctor, his lovely light brown overcoat covered in a layer of thick dust, his hair flatter than he probably would have liked,'and a few cuts on his face that joined a worried expression.

The Doctor saw Bella standing up facing away from him. He let out a sigh of relief. She was safe. Well, as safe as you could be in _half_ a spaceship. Man, he was glad he had soniced the air lock.

He watched her as she turned around to discover the great, gaping gap between them, her face losing most of its colour. He was extremely glad that she wasn't obviously seriously hurt but he then remembered that the TARDIS was on her side of the broken ship. His hearts sank. How was he meant to get to her now?

"I will get to you somehow!" he yelled knowing that there was no point as she wouldn't be able to hear him. He looked at her desperately as she stared at him emotionally. "I won't leave you!" he yelled. "I will find a way to get to you, I promise!"

He saw her nod and smile ever-so-slightly as Ryan stood up rubbing his head._ At least she wasn't alone_, he thought painfully to himself, but he couldn't help but wish that he was on that side of the ship as opposed to Ryan.

"I will find a way to you," he said quietly before taking one last determined glance at Bella and turning around to run up the stairs.

Bella watched as the Doctor yelled, his voice never reaching her ears, but she understood. As she fought back tears that she hoped he couldn't see, she nodded and gave the Doctor what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

"He is promising to get back to you." Ryan said as he stood up. "He's mind is working so very fast."

"I know," she whispered as the Doctor took one last look at her before disappearing up the stairs. She sunk to the ground, not caring if Ryan could read her thoughts anymore. She was trapped once again without the Doctor, and it was entirely her fault. If she had of waited in the TARDIS like he had told her to he wouldn't have stopped to reprimand her.

"What are you feeling?" Ryan asked, watching her.

"Why do you ask if you can feel it too?" Bella asked him, looking out to the stars.

"I have never experienced this emotion – this devastation before." Ryan said as he sunk to the floor beside her. "It hurts to feel like this."

"Yeah," she admitted. "It does."

The Doctor burst into the helm room and strode over to the wall that was covered in electronics, frowning in absolute concentration.

"I am very sorry, Doctor." Brooks said, holding onto the round wheel with one hand.

"It's not your fault." He said darkly.

"She doesn't blame you." Brooks told him quietly. "She is just relieved that you are okay. She does believe however that the fault lies with herself –"

"What happened to the sailor?" the Doctor said interrupting him.

"He was hurt," Brooks said.

"And the other humans?" he pressed, trying anything to keep his mind off what he had said about Bella.

Brooks pointed to a computer beside him and the Doctor walked over to it, putting his black brainy specs. It was a three dimensional map of the entire ship and although it didn't show the damage, it did show the life forms on board. There was two little human shapes in the helm (that was Brooks and the Doctor) and two other little shapes which the Doctor knew to be Bella and Ryan.

"The men were all in their cabins at the time of the attack, which is the part of the ship that was blasted." Brooks told him. "We are the only ones left on board."

"These Eternals," the Doctor said in a somewhat angry voice. He hated the fact that he had been separated from Bella again so soon after everything that had happened on Nealon. "Tell me everything you know about them." He ordered.

Brooks looked to him for a moment, understanding why the Doctor was so cross. "As I told you before, the humans that travel with these Eternals are pirates. I am sure you of all people know what they are like and how they act towards others." He said. "I can't even tell you what they are thinking."

"What do you think they will do now?"

"Check the wreckage for survivors, I would say." He said hesitantly.

"Bella," the Doctor gasped.

Bella stood up, suddenly annoyed with herself. Why was she sitting here doing nothing when the Doctor would have been trying anything and everything to get back to her.

She looked around her and opened the door closest to her and jogged down the stairs into the cargo hold. There stood the TARDIS, shining a blue-ish light from the windows, amongst the wooden crates. She spotted a lantern on one of the boxes and lit it and began examining the walls.

"The intercom system is at the foot of the stairs," Ryan said, descending the stairs.

She turned around and held the lantern up so the light reached the opposite wall. "Excellent," she said, striding over to the dead intercom system and taking the face off it to reveal multicoloured wires. "I'm afraid I don't have the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, so I am going to have to do this the old fashioned way!"

"I need to get over to her, Brooks!" the Doctor said urgently. "I can't let them find her!"

"You can't," Brooks said sadly. "The life rafts don't have enough power to get you to the other half of the ship."

The Doctor opened his mouth to argue, but Brooks spoke over the top of him.

"You already have the power diverted to keeping the airlock in place. If you take some of that power away to allow you transport, you risk the chance of the airlock breaking."

"_I bet you wish you had of taught me how to drive the TARDIS now don't you!_"

The Doctor spun around and searched for the source of Bella's voice which he found on a screen that belonged to the intercom system.

"Bella!" the Doctor said, rushing over to the small screen seeing the side of the TARDIS behind her. She smiled at him. "How'd you –"

"_I fixed it myself,_" she grinned proudly. "_I didn't even need a Sonic screwdriver, I just rearranged the wires until I could see you guys_." She explained before added, "_It's okay, you can say it_,"

"Say what?" the Doctor asked her.

"That you're talking to a genius," Brooks and Ryan said at the same time, making Bella laugh and the Doctor smile.

"_So, uh, no pressure to come up with a plan or anything_," Bella said, in a more serious voice now. "_But what are we going to do? I mean, I really don't know how to drive the TARDIS, so I can't really do much_."

"I don't know what we are going to do, Bella." He sighed. "My last idea won't work."

"_What was it_?"

"To use the life rafts," he told her dismissively. "But we would have to divert some of the power that is holding the airlock in place to the rafts, which might cause the airlocks to fail."

Bella smiled.

"What?" he asked.

"_Well_," she said still smiling at him. "_I think you forget that Ryan and I could wait in the TARDIS while you two put on the emergency space suits, divert the power, get in the small life vessel and mosey on over, that way, if the airlock _did_ stop working, we'd all be safe_."

The Doctor looked at her, thinking that Bella really was a genius. "Bella, that's brilliant."

"_Why do you sound so surprised_?" She laughed at him.

"Okay, you two wait in the TARDIS; do not open the door for anything understand?"

Bella looked to him frowning slightly. "_Are you expecting the in-laws or something_?"

He frowned at her and Ryan saved him from having to answer.

"_The Eternals who destroyed our ship are likely to come and check for survivors_." He told her from off screen, Bella looking to her left. "_The Doctor has a key_ –"

"_I know he has a key_," Bella said incredulously, turning to her left to give him an earful. "_Why wouldn't he have a key to his own spaceship?"_

"Bella," the Doctor sighed making her turn back to him.

"_Sorry_," she said quietly. "_We'll wait for you in the TARDIS_," she told him looking uncharacteristically nervous.

The Doctor didn't need to read her mind to know what that was, he thought miserably to himself. "I'll see you in a bit then," he said, attempting to smile.

Bella grinned at him. "_I know_."

The screen went black and the Doctor looked down to the ground.

"Why are you worrying?" Brooks asked him. "She knows you won't leave her again."

"But what happens if the Eternals get to them first?" he asked, thinking of various things that they might do to her.

Brooks frowned. "Well," he finally said. "If you keep thinking up scenarios like that one instead of concentrating at the task at hand, we will never reach her in time."

The Doctor looked away somewhat shamefully. _So I'm over thinking the situation slightly_, he thought to himself.

"They won't capture her and make her walk the plank either," Brooks said rolling his eyes.

"You don't know pirates," the Doctor said in an undertone before walking over to the consol.


	41. Ep8 The Eternals CH5

**Ep8 The Eternals CH5**

Bella took one last look at the Doctor's would-be-calm face before pushing the green button making the screen go black. She sighed and looked down.

"He is very worried about you," Ryan said quietly behind her.

Bella nodded. "And I'm worried about him," she said, turning to the TARDIS and pulling her chain out from her shirt and putting the small silver key in the lock. The door clicked and she put the warm key back down her shirt and opened the right-hand side door, stepping to the side to let Ryan in.

"After you," she said and he walked in slowly, Bella following him in and shutting the door behind her, smiling. Ryan had stopped walking and his mouth hung open as he stared in wonder.

"The memories in your minds didn't do this ship any justice," he exclaimed.

Bella's smile widened. "Nah, it's defiantly a need-to-see-with-your-own-eyes thing." She told him, going to sit on the orange/yellow seat at the centre consol. "She's the most beautiful thing in the universe."

"Although it hasn't always looked like this," Ryan said. "The Doctor's memories show this."

She frowned slightly, making a mental note to ask the Doctor about this comment the next time she saw him.

The Doctor zipped up the black space suit as Brooks climbed into the life boat. He soniced the intercom system and the interior of the TARDIS showed on the small screen.

"Bella?" he said and he heard footsteps off camera before Bella appeared smiling.

"_Where are you_?" she asked him.

"I'm just about to get into the life boat," he told her quickly. "I just wanted to make sure you were in the TARDIS before I diverted the power."

Bella nodded. "_We're both in here, doors are locked just like you said and I won't open it for anyone_."

"Good," he said feeling thankful that she'd actually done what he'd asked her to do. She was safe in the TARDIS. He smiled at her. "See you soon."

"_Doctor_," she said quickly before he had time to disconnect the link. He looked to her, her eyes alight with concern. "_Be careful_."

He looked at her seriously. "Always,"

She gave him a small smile before he disconnected the link to the TARDIS. He turned to the consol beside him and put on his space helmet.

"Alright, I'm about to divert the power," he told Brooks who nodded knowingly. "Ah, right. You know what I'm doing." He sighed before pressing the red that activated the life vessels.

"Escape pod is powered up," Brooks called to him.

He nodded and walked over and jumped in behind Brooks. "The power seems to be holding on the main ship, keeping the airlock in place, but I give it around ten, twenty minutes max."

Brooks nodded again, before pushing a button and a glass roof slid into place. He pulled a lever and they began to move at a very slow pace, Brooks using the very small steering wheel to steer. The Doctor sighed again as he leant against the edge of the boat, thinking that this was going to be the slowest boat trip of his life.

Bella paced around the TARDIS consol room feeling worried as Ryan sat on the chair watching her. She wished she had something constructive to keep her occupied but she knew there was nothing. She felt like the damsel in distress and she hated every minute of it. She knew Ryan was still reading her thoughts, but she made no effort to close her mind from him. He wasn't doing any harm, yet she just hoped that Brooks (if he could still read her mind from this far away) wasn't telling the Doctor what she was thinking.

"Brooks can read your mind from where he is," Ryan told her. "But he hasn't said anything to the Doctor because he knows you don't want him too."

"Good," Bella said as she stopped pacing and looked to the computer screen with the Gallifreyean numbers on it.

"Can I ask you a question?" Ryan asked making Bella look to him surprised. "You need to think of something for me to see it on most occasions, Bella." He added before she could ask.

"Sure, go ahead,"

"Why is it okay for me to be able to know your thoughts and feelings, but not the Doctor?"

"I dunno," Bella shrugged. "I don't want him to think any less of me."

"And knowing what you think would make him do that?" Ryan asked genuinely confused.

"I guess," she admitted quietly, voicing her fears for the very first time. "That and if he knew my thoughts he might find me boring or he might not like me that much anymore. I did have a rather boring life before he came along."

"You are so spectacularly wrong," Ryan stated.

"Sorry?"

"He has never thought you to be boring, he thinks quite the opposite really and he respects you greatly." Ryan said. "He considers you among his greatest friends."

Bella looked at him sceptically. "So I'm up there amongst Donna Noble, Martha Jones, Mickey Smith, Jack, Ace, Tegan and Sarah Jane am I?"

"Yes you are," Ryan said, obviously wondering how on earth she didn't know that already.

"What about Rose Tyler?" Bella asked quietly. "There is no way I could come close to her and I'd never try either. The Doctor loved her and probably still does. Jack told me. She was brilliant – what am I talking about, she probably still is, saving the universe with the Doctor point five in their parallel universe and their own TARDIS. The Doctor talks about her all the time, tells me about their adventures; the shop dummies, the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Slitheen, a werewolf in Scotland –"

"You probably know more about the Doctor's past then Martha Jones, Jack Harkness and Rose Tyler put together." Ryan said. "Maybe even Donna too. To put it into perspective for you, you probably found out more about the Doctor from your adventure in Scotland than Martha found out over the entire time she was with him."

Bella looked at him feeling slightly stunned. She had thought the Doctor told everyone his back story, especially Rose.

"And you still have so much more to learn about him, things he _wants_ to tell you, but just doesn't really know how." He continued. "You haven't yet realised how alike you both are, and that is something that draws him to you, Bella."

Shocked, she began to think this through.

"Bella, close your mind," Ryan said suddenly.

She rolled her eyes. "You've practically seen everything in my head, why should this thought process be any different -?

"Close it!" he ordered standing up.

She looked to him frowning.

"The crew from the other ship are here," he whispered moving closer to her. "Most of them are humans but two of them are Eternals."

"Doctor!" she gasped, wondering how they were going to get to the TARDIS now.

"Close your mind," he said urgently. "It is not just your own secrets that you need to protect, but the Doctor's too. If these pirates get hold –"

But Bella had already closed her eyes and began to imagine the fanciest door she could dream up in her head. The TARDIS suddenly gave a lurch and her eyes flew open. She grabbed the centre console with her right hand before grabbing onto Ryan's arm with her left.

"The Eternals have ordered that the TARDIS should be taken back to their ship." Ryan told her as the whole ship swayed back and forth violently.

"WHAT?" she shrieked feeling horrified.

"Doctor," Brooks said quietly, his tone suddenly tense.

The Doctor sat forward, looking at him sharply. "What?"

"The Eternals," he told him. "They've found the TARDIS."

"WHAT?" he said in a semi-high pitched voice.

"There are two Eternals on our ship, another back on theirs. That would be Adorn."

"What are they doing?" the Doctor asked panicking. "Is Bella okay?"

"They are getting ready to load the TARDIS onto their small boat," Brooks said concentrating hard.

"And Bella?" he pressed.

"She has closed her mind," he said. "But she is thinking very fast and she's scared. Ryan thinks she may do something drastic in order to protect the TARDIS and you –"

"WHAT?" the Doctor said grabbing Brooks.


	42. Ep8 The Eternals CH6

**Ep8 The Eternals CH6**

Bella decided what she was going to do in a split second decision, so fast that even if Ryan had been able to read her mind he wouldn't have seen in coming.

"Stay here," She yelled as she ran away from Ryan towards the TARDIS doors. She yanked them open and jumped out slamming them shut behind her again so no one could get in. She counted seven swords that had appeared at her throat and she raised her hands to show that she was surrendering.

"Stop," a man called and the swords retreated slightly from her neck.

She relaxed slightly and looked to her right. There were pirates surrounding her (very _Pirates of the Caribbean _like) and she realised that they had managed to drag the TARDIS up the stairs out of the cargo hold and onto the hallway that was open to space. _The airlock is still in place_, she thought to herself. She had forgotten about the fact of that and she thought she was lucky to not be dead.

The tall black man that had told them pirates to stop strode over to her, looking at her curiously. "So you are the strange creature hiding in the blue box."

"So what if I am?" she asked him looking up to him; he was so tall. She had always considered the Doctor to be a tall man, but this guy would have to tower over him.

"Our captain is curious as to know how it is that you are able to keep your thoughts from us." He told her.

"So your captain found it necessary to blow our ship apart?" Bella asked him.

"No, no," the man laughed. "She did _that_ for her own amusement."

Bella scowled up at him feeling disgusted. "So what is it that you want now?"

"The Blue box." he said.

"Well you aren't getting it." Bella stated simply.

The man's eyes narrowed. "We want to find out how it is protecting your mind from us."

"It isn't," she said matter-of-factly. "I'm doing that."

The man's cocky expression turned to that of shock and disbelief.

"Tell you what, why don't I come with you?" she proposed.

"Why would you do that?" he asked her.

"Well, taking into account that you blew apart this ship and the airlock is going to fail in –"she glanced to her watch on her left wrist, before looking back up to him. "- three minutes, it looks like the best options as opposed to suffocating in an empty blue box."

The man seemed to think about everything Bella had just said.

"Two minutes," she added sweetly, putting on the pressure.

"Bind her hands," ordered the Eternal and one of the human men blundered forward and tied white cloth tightly (and painfully) around her wrists in front of her body.

"Everyone in the boat," the Eternal ordered and Bella was pushed and shoved into the unstable looking space vessel.

The Doctor watched horrified as Bella was pushed into the pirates' small craft, the seven human pirates piling in after her, making the vessel rock unstably. A glass roof slid over their heads before they began rowing back towards their main ship, where the Doctor could just make out Bella being pulled roughly off the boat and onto the ship.

"The airlock's gone," Brooks said as he steered the escape pod over to the exposed part of the ship.

Bella was pulled roughly off the boat and onto the pirate ship by the tall, muscled Eternal, who held her by her right elbow. They waited for the other Eternal (a white, ordinary height man with no real muscle on him) before they all walked across the dark wooden deck. As they walked Bella felt all the eyes of the twenty human men on her.

"Take a good look, men," The tall black Eternal jeered. "Cause this is the closest to her that you're ever going to get!"

All the men groaned, full of disappointment.

"You certainly know how to make someone feel welcome." Bella said awkwardly, her cheeks gaining some unwanted colour. "Where are you taking me?"

"The captain's quarters." He told her. "Adorn wishes to speak with you."

The Doctor leapt out of the escape pod and strode over to the TARDIS and unlocked the door. He walked in angrily, Brooks following behind. He took off his space helmet and glared at Ryan as he pulled off the space suit.

"Her mind is such a strong one Doctor," Ryan said to him, knowing exactly what he was thinking. "I told her to close her mind which meant I couldn't see what she was going to do."

"Why didn't you go after her and what is it that they want with her."

"She told me to stay –"

"Would you jump off a bridge if she told you to do that?" the Doctor snapped.

"If she wanted me to, yes," Ryan said truthfully, temporarily stunning the Doctor. "And they want her because of her ability to close her mind to us."

"They are so focused on this impossible thing that Bella can do they have literally forgotten about us." Brooks said before the Doctor had the chance to ask. "I think that that is what she had hoped would happen."

The Doctor sighed and ran his hands through his hair feeling rather perplexed.

"She is in no immediate danger, Doctor." Brooks said calmly. "Although they will eventually get bored with her,"

The Doctor looked sharply to him. "What will they do to her?" he asked quickly before shaking his head and holding up a hand to stop Brooks from speaking. "I don't even want to know." He added before pulling a leaver and the klaxon fired up and the Time Rotor began to rise and fall.

"But you don't even have a plan!" exclaimed Ryan.

"I'll do what I always do," the Doctor said impatiently. "Make it up as I go along!"

Bella looked to the brilliantly dressed female Eternal who was sitting on her wooden throne-like-chair in front of her, feeling a little disappointed. She looked like a normal human from the sixteenth century. She had fair blonde curls; she was tall, thin and quite good looking. Basically, she was every man's dream.

"Adorn I assume?" Bella asked.

"You sound disappointed." She observed.

"Well, yeah," Bella admitted honestly. "I was hoping for a crew who were slowly becoming part of the ship, with crustaceans growing on their faces and a captain with one leg and a squid for a face and who also had a massive church organ in their quarters. I mean, what's the point of being a pirate if you aren't like Davy Jones and his crew?"

"Davy who?" asked Adorn who looked as though she was debating whether to take her seriously or not.

"He's an old Earth legend who was also a character in an American film called _Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest_. It's a bit Hollywood blockbuster, but once you get past that fact it's an alright film and I'd recommend it." She smiled. "Davy Jones was immortal too."

"You seem to know a lot about us," Adorn said frowning, "Yet we know hardly anything about you."

"All I know about the Eternals is that you exist outside of time and that you lot in particular blew apart Captain Brooks' ship." She summarised. "What do you want to know about me?"

"We are confused as to why we cannot read your mind, despite the fact that you are an Ephemeral." Adorn said watching Bella closely.

"I thought it was quite simple actually," Bella answered. "I don't want you reading my mind."

"Ephemerals normally don't have a choice in the matter." Adorn said unkindly.

"We always have a choice." Bella said coolly.

Adorn's eyes narrowed. "You are very different from the other Ephemerals, how do you do it?"

"It's a technique a good friend taught me," she said quietly. "What was the reason you blew up Brooks' ship, he was doing nothing to you?"

Adorn smiled. "He is soft, content to sail through the universe and observing life."

"And that's a bad thing, is it?" Bella said loudly, swearing she heard the TARDIS materialising somewhere below them, making her keen to keep the Eternals focused on her.

"He enjoys the Ephemerals company –"

"Only because the _humans_ enjoy his," Bella said fiercely.

"Exactly," Adorn said coldly. "You are all beneath us, your lives are so short and that makes you dispensable."

"We are _not_ the inferior species!" said Bella hotly. "You depend on us for our emotions and our thoughts. Without us you are nothing."

Adorn laughed loudly. "You seem so convinced."

"It's because I know I'm right!" she said, her voice full of determination.

"No, you are not," Adorn said. "And I am now beginning to tire of the fact that I cannot read your mind."

"Deal with it," Bella told her angrily.

"Oh, believe me I will, for the same reason I blew apart your friend's ship; for amusement." Adorn looked to the tall, black Eternal on Bella's right. "Make her walk the plank."

"What?" gasped Bella as the two male Eternals grabbed her and began to drag her back the door, Adorn standing up and following while she laughed evilly the more Bella struggled.


	43. Ep8 The Eternals CH7

**_Author's note: Final chapter for the episode, and it's a long one :P I hope that doesn't bother anyone! I would like to welcome The Wicked That Mourns Just, I hope you are enjoying the story so far and that you continue to do so :P Also, seven reviews for the last chapter! Thank you so much guys, I really appreciate it!_**

**Ep8 The Eternals CH7**

* * *

The Doctor bounded out of the TARDIS not knowing whether the two Eternals were following him or not. He ran down the corridor, not knowing where he was running to but knew he would find out eventually considering the ship wasn't that big. He slid around a corner before stopping suddenly when he heard a familiar cry.

"They've got her on deck," Ryan said as he bumped into the Doctor. "We need to hurry.

The Doctor ran forward again trying to find stairs, both of the Eternals behind him.

Bella stood on a wooden plank, fear running through her. She couldn't talk her way out of this one, how come it always worked for the Doctor? _Maybe I need more practice_, she thought to herself, before looking down. She took a gulp of air as she knew there would be no more chances on improving her conversational skills once falling from the plank. Once she did that she'd fall out of the airlock and she'd suffocate.

"Not so convinced now are you?" Adorn jeered.

"I still stand by what I said," Bella said in what she hoped was a strong voice. "You need us, admit it."

Adorn drew her sword and put it to Bella's throat. "Walk the plank,"

"Why do I feel like Elizabeth Swan?" Bella moaned before hesitantly taking a step forward.

"BELLA!" called a familiar voice from in the ship.

Everyone (including Bella) turned to the doors that led to the captain's quarters which were to Bella's left. Moments later the Doctor burst out of the double doors followed closely by Ryan and Captain Brooks.

"Doctor!" gasped Bella as the tall, black Eternal grabbed Bella and pulled her off the plank and held his sharp sword up to her neck.

"Who's this?" Adorn said looking over the Doctor. "A Time Lord; a Time Lord dear Bella was trying to protect from us. Romantic don't you think, Doctor?"

Bella looked furiously to Adorn. "Leave him alone!"

"Aww, there goes all your mind control," Adorn smiled gleefully as she turned back to Bella. "Let's see what is in that mind of yours. Oh, this is wonderful in your mind, girl. Such a heart-renching childhood spent on Earth always feeling so lonely, just dreaming of the stars."

Bella looked at Adorn, not blinking as her face became pale and the Doctor, Ryan and Brooks were surrounded, numerous swords now aimed at them.

"All you wanted was for someone to come and rescue you, to save you from your painful past." Adorn continued as Bella looked down to the wooden deck, her jaw clamped shut. "Oh you have such rich memories, memories that have details that even you cannot remember. Just like the night of the accident that _killed_ your father –"

"Say nothing more, Adorn!" Brooks ordered furiously, some of the Doctor's fury transferring to him.

Adorn smiled sweetly. "But there is so much that she doesn't know, Brooks, so much that she hasn't realised. I could tell her now, make life so much easier. Things about her father and the man who held her hand as she slipped in and out of consciousness in the car while her father's body lay next to her –"

"Stop!" said Ryan angrily.

"But what a mind it is, you feel exactly the same, boys and eventually she trusted you both enough to let you in." Adorn said moving closer to Bella, who was still looking down. "The Doctor saved you twice and then he showed you the stars. You're half alien! Half Nealonian!" she gasped.

"Bella," the Doctor warned desperately feeling his heartbeats increasing. She needed to close her mind, Adorn was getting dangerously close to her secret, the one that he himself was trying so hard not to think about, but all she did was stare hollowly at the deck.

"But there was a war," Adorn said quietly, closing her eyes to help her see deeper into Bella's mind. "A war between the Nealonians and the family of Slitheen and your people lost. They are all dead. Every single one of that ancient race except you and someone told the Slitheen of your peoples one weakness –"Adorn's eyes flew open and she glared down at Bella who glared furiously back.

"Like I said before," Bella said quietly. "Ephemerals _always_ have a choice."

The Doctor gave a small sigh of relief realising she had closed her mind just in time.

"Let her go Adorn," Brooks said as she had raised her sword up to Bella's neck and pressed it until a small amount of blood could be seen on the blade. "Read the Doctor's mind, you know what he could do to you if you put her life in danger."

Adorn took the sword off Bella's neck and turned angrily to face Brooks.

"Especially if he finds out what you are doing to the Ephemerals." Ryan added.

"What's she doing to the crew?" Bella asked quickly, concern flashing across her face.

"You know pirates well enough Bella to know what amuses them." Brooks said calmly. "And these Eternals do not comply with the rules for taking Ephemerals from their time frames."

"You make them walk the plank!" said Bella outraged. "And they aren't protected by the security protocol that sends them home unhurt! You are killing them!"

"But it gets worse than that, doesn't it?" the Doctor said quietly.

Bella looked to him, hearing the change in his voice. She could tell he was furious, the look on his face told everyone that and as she looked at it, it was the first time that he ever terrified her.

Adorn looked to him and she took a slight step back from him.

"Because you've got special magnetic fields in place so that if another group of Eternals went by they wouldn't be able to know what you were doing." He continued taking a few steps towards Adorn. "Now, I'm betting that you have some kind of weapon on this ship. Making the humans walk the plank isn't enough is it? You've been blowing up planets, destroying civilisations."

Bella gasped as she looked horrified to Adorn.

"And what are the odds of Earth being the next to go?" The Doctor asked furiously as Adorn smiled slightly. "Six point nine billion innocent people just for your own amusement,"

"You can't do that," Bella said, sounding terrified.

"I've already done it," Adorn said in a bored voice. "Not to Earth," she added as Bella looked over the side of the ship to make sure it was still there.

"To whom then?" she asked horrified at the thought.

"The planet Klom,"

Bella looked to the Doctor, whose eyes flashed dangerously. That had been a planet that the Doctor and Donna had saved from the Daleks, she remembered him telling her about it.

"Oh, get off your high horse, Doctor!" said Adorn rolling her eyes. "Klom was the sister planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius, home of the disgusting Absorbaloth. Even you've said that Klom was unimportant."

The Doctor remained silent and raised his sonic screwdriver up towards the panel beside the double doors. Bella looked at him, her heartbeat increasing as the Doctor and Adorn just stared at each other.

Adorn read his mind as saw terrifying images in his memories; the Doctor standing watching the Emperor of the Racnoss cry for her children that were drowning as the water soaked him, the Cybermen and Daleks being sucked back into the void space and the Doctor point five committing genocide on the Daleks and their leader yelling in pain as he was engulfed in fire. She saw the Doctor point his sonic screwdriver at five jars filled with liquid, the three Slitheen screaming before they each exploded and then she saw the Doctor carrying a blood soaked Bella though the Torchwood Hub.

Bella understood that Adorn was reading the Doctor's mind, but she wondered what exactly he was thinking, especially when the Eternal that was holding her suddenly let her go.

She looked around to the Eternal feeling confused and not knowing what she had missed. He backed away from her looking frightened. She looked back to the Doctor to see what he wanted her to do, but he wouldn't look at her. Brooks and Ryan caught her eye and motioned her forwards towards them. She slowly walked to them, looking only at the Doctor who practically had rage resonating off him. She looked to Adorn as she walked past her and saw fear in her eyes too.

"Doctor," she whispered as she stopped beside him.

"Go to the TARDIS," he instructed coldly, his eyes never leaving Adorn's.

Bella took a few steps back from the harshness in his voice. "What are you going to do?"

Adorn smiled at this. "Something he'd rather not let you see."

The Doctor raised the screwdriver a bit more in a threatening way and the smile slid from Adorn's face.

"Doctor?" repeated Bella softly.

"Go, Bella," he said as Brooks placed a hand on her arm, turning her towards him and beginning to lead her away from the Doctor and into the captain's quarters, Ryan following them.

"What's he going to do?" Bella asked looking over her shoulder as she was practically dragged along by Brooks and Ryan, to see the Doctor slowly walk backwards into the room.

"He doesn't want you to know," Ryan said quietly as they reached the top of the stairs.

Bella managed to pull them to a stop halfway down the stairs, looking horrified. "Then it can't be good then!" she said before they both let her go and she leapt up the stairs in time to see the Doctor locking the double doors with the sonic.

"Doctor –"

"Didn't I tell you to get inside the TARDIS?" he asked her angrily, not looking her in the eye.

Wincing slightly at the tone of his voice and the fact that it was aimed at her, she followed him over to the control panel, her hands still bound painfully tight. "Whatever it is that you are doing there has to be another way."

"There isn't." he told her darkly.

Bella stopped beside him and looked up to him a worried frown on her face.

"They have to stopped or they'll blow apart every planet in the universe."

"I know that, but why are you fiddling with the airlock?" Bella asked him as she froze and looked to her, making her eyes widen as she worked out what he was going to do. "Doctor, no!"

He looked back down to the controls and began sonicing them before Bella's bounded hands grabbed his arm. He looked down to her hands then up to her terrified face.

"They'll die, Doctor, the humans. The security protocols aren't in place."

"If I don't do this Bella, they'll get away." He told her quickly. "They'll destroy the Earth. They'll fire up the weapon and blast it apart –"

"Then destroy the weapon," Bella said, pleading with him now, "because if you cancel out the airlock, you're just as bad as they are."

There was severe banging on the double wooden doors but neither of them flinched, they just stood staring at each other.

"At least give the Eternals one last chance and if they screw that up so be it" Bella whispered emotionally, "But send the humans home. Yes, they're brutal, but that's because they're swashbuckling pirates, they're meant to be!"

The Doctor looked at her, mortified with himself. What was he doing? He had been moments away from killing twenty human beings. If Bella hadn't of come back up he would have been just as bad as them. Donna had always been right. He did need someone with him to stop him.

"You're right," he said, nodding. "And so was Donna."

"Donna?" repeated Bella, confused about Donna's relevance at this point in time. "What?"

"She's always said that he needed someone with him," Ryan said as he and Brooks walked quickly towards them.

"We'll work on disabling the weapon." Brooks said, beginning to type on a small keyboard.

The Doctor nodded. "We need to send the humans home."

Brooks and Ryan nodded, both of them working quickly. As Ryan turned various knobs, he leant over to Bella and whispered "She's always thought that someone needs to stop him sometimes."

Bella looked to the Doctor and bit her lip as the doors lurched and nearly gave way.

"They're nearly in," she said aloud just in case anyone had missed it.

"Bella, come here," the Doctor said quickly as Bella moved to his side. He soniced the white cloth on her wrists so they fell off, noticing as he did so her wrists were raw. He tried to ignore the anger rising in his stomach and moved her over to a desk where Brooks was working at. "I need you to push that button there in exactly one minute okay?"

She nodded, watching him with wide, concerned eyes.

"It will send them home," he told her even thought she hadn't questioned his instructions.

The doors suddenly burst open and Adorn and the two other Eternals broke through, the sixteenth century pirates following close behind.

"Stay where you are!" the Doctor ordered, raising his sonic screwdriver and pointing it towards the control panel.

"You wouldn't do it, Doctor." Adorn smiled. "Bella made you come round, bless her."

"And I can change my mind again," he said truthfully before Bella checked her watched and pressed the green button, just as he had instructed her to and all the humans faded away.

"What did you do?" Adorn asked angrily.

"We sent them home," the Doctor said. "Where they belong," he added taking a few steps forward.

"Be careful!" Bella whispered.

"I will give you one final chance to change your plans." The Doctor proposed quietly.

"You try so very hard to protect that planet, don't you?" Adorn asked. "Even when they sometimes disgust you..."

"Even fellow humans are disgusted with us." Bell said, moving closer to the Doctor. "Just because some of us do stupid and horrible things doesn't mean the whole world deserves to be blown up. It's unfair to punish the majority for the minority's mistakes."

Adorn smiled slightly. "You've got yourself a very loyal companion there," she said quietly, too quietly for everyone else to hear. "If a bit naïve when it comes to the feeling of the opposite sex." she added, making the Doctor clench his teeth together.

"No, we will not stop the attack on the planets, Doctor. Amusement is all we live for."

"Then I'm sorry." He said truthfully. "But I can't let you continue sailing in this universe. You need to go back to living outside of reality." He turned back to the control panel and soniced it.

The ship gave a lurch and the three bad Eternals were knocked back out of the door. Brooks and Ryan grabbed hold of what they could and Bella slipped forward where the doctor grabbed her and held onto the control panel (and Bella) tightly.

"What did you do?" Bella yelled holding onto the Doctor as pieces of furniture went sliding out the doors.

"I think I soniced the wrong thing!" The Doctor yelled seriously.

"Well sonic it again before we all get sucked out!" she cried.

The Doctor lifted his screwdriver to the controls and all four of them fell painfully to the floor where they all momentarily stayed while they caught their breath,

Bella suddenly sat up. "Is the airlock still in place?"

"Yeah, why?" the Doctor asked, he too sitting up.

"It just feels a bit hard to breathe, that's all." She said quietly, putting her hand to her chest as the Doctor frowned at her.

"The airlock hasn't held!" Brooks yelled suddenly, looking to a flashing screen. "The air is leaking out!"

"WHAT?" the Doctor and Bella yelled.

"EVERYONE INTO THE TARDIS!" the Doctor yelled, pulling Bella up to her feet.

"Doctor, we'll stay and make sure the weapon is completely destroyed," Brooks said. "That and make sure the air lock holds until you reach the TARDIS."

"We can't leave you here!" Bella said.

"Trust us Bella," Ryan said softly. "You have given us more adventure than most Eternals deserve. This is our way of repaying you."

"You don't have to –"Bella started, but swayed falling into the Doctor, who caught her.

"Doctor, it's the lack of oxygen," Brooks said suddenly moving towards them. "It's the rise in carbon dioxide levels, they affect her greatly."

The Doctor made to lift her up but she stubbornly pushed him away.

"Thank you for letting us in your mind, Bella." Ryan said kissing her on the cheek as Brooks added "eventually".

"We're sorry –"she started before they cut her off.

"Go!" they said and she nodded, allowing the Doctor to take her hand and lead her down stairs where they ran to the TARDIS, quickly getting inside and shutting the doors behind them.

Brooks and Ryan watched as the Doctor and Bella ran to the stairs and once they had disappeared from view the quickly got to work. Brooks had said that they would hold the airlock until they reached the TARDIS and destroy the de-atomising gun so that no one else could get their hands on it, and there was no way he was going back on his word.

The room began to shake violently and they both glanced at each other, knowing that it wouldn't be long now until their demise. They had had a good life though, and they had never expected to have the good fortune of meeting people like the Doctor and Bella. They both felt so honoured and extremely lucky –

_Vworp! Vworp!_

Brooks and Ryan looked up to see the blue police box materialising in front of them about thirty centimetres about the wooden floor. As they stared at it in amazement, the TARDIS doors opened quickly and Bella appeared.

"Come on!" she called hurriedly, holding tightly onto the door frame as the box lurched from side to side. "We haven't got much time!"

Brooks and Ryan exchanged a confused look.

"Stop staring and get a move on!" yelled the Doctor from somewhere within the TARDIS. I can't land because the ship is about to be ripped apart, you're going to have to leg it!"

"Please, come on," Bella said again, holding out her hand and both the Eternals moved forward and ran towards the blue box, quickly jumping in as the ship gave an almighty lurch.

As soon as they were in, Bella slammed the doors shut and locked them, before turning to the Doctor. "Go," she said as she bounded towards him, past the Eternals who sat on the floor, not quite believing their luck.

The Doctor grinned at her as she reached him. "Everyone on board?" he asked before saying "Alons-y!" he said happily as he pulled a lever, and the klaxon fired up.

Brooks and Ryan walked side-by-side down the crowded early nineteenth century street feeling more emotions than they could have thought imaginable. As Ryan went to talk to a young boy who was selling a newspaper, Brooks turned around and looked back to the blue police box.

The Doctor and Bella were standing in front of it, just smiling. They had saved their lives again and given them the opportunity to live a new, wonderful life on Earth. He couldn't explain how he was feeling, but he was sure that the Doctor and Bella knew that he would always be thankful.

The Doctor smiled at Brooks before turning and opening the TARDIS doors, leaving Bella alone. She gave a small smile before waving to him, telling him to say goodbye to Ryan for her (through her thoughts of course). She took one last look before she too disappeared into the TARDIS. He watched with a fond smile as the box dematerialised before his very eyes and he knew that they would never forget them...

* * *

**Next time: The Doctor is put into a situation that he has been in before but with a different companion. How different will it be this time with Bella? Will she let him eat pears? All he knows is, that he definitely never wanted to have to do it again...**


	44. Ep9 Deja vu CH1

**Ep9 Déjà vu CH1**

Bella ran for her life as she glanced back over her shoulder, making sure the Doctor was behind her still.

"Keep going!" He yelled as she slowed slightly.

She turned back and kept running, trying to remember exactly where they had left the TARDIS only half an hour before. She turned left when she came to a T-shaped corridor. Hearing no objections, she continued running. A blast from a ray gun hit the wall behind her and she ducked, crying out in surprise.

"Get to the TARDIS!" The Doctor yelled urgently somewhere behind her. "We're nearly there,"

She continued running and turned right at another junction and relief flooded over her. The TARDIS was at the very end of the corridor, just waiting patiently for them to return.

"I see her!" She yelled out to him.

"About time,"

She ran quickly to the blue police box and pulled out her TARDIS key and fumbled with the lock.

"Hurry up!" The Doctor yelled as he slid around the corner, running towards her at full speed.

"I'm trying!" She snapped, her hands trembling. At any moment the creatures she had not seen would come around the corner and blast them both to smithereens.

_Click._

"I've got it!" She said triumphantly as she opened the door and looked back to find the Doctor.

"BELLA!" the Doctor yelled as he collided with her and they both fell into the TARDIS, landing painfully on the hard metal floor.

A blast from a ray gun hit the outside of the TARDIS and the Doctor jumped up and closed the doors, dead-locking it.

"Are you alright?" He asked, helping Bella up off the floor.

"Yeah," Bella said nodding, looking past the Doctor to the door behind him. "Can whatever it is get in?"

"No," he said. "But it will try."

"What?" Bella gasped as the Doctor bounded to the control panel, throwing his overcoat over one of the arches.

"We need to get out of here," he said, pushing buttons and pulling random levers.

"To where?" she asked him.

The Doctor looked up to her, hearing fear in her voice that wasn't normally there. He often forgot that she wasn't like him, that sometimes she actually _did_ get scared. Not that he was never scared; it had happened a few times in his life yet nowadays it seemed to occur more often.

"Where ever you would like," he told her reassuringly, smiling.

Bella relaxed and smiled as the Doctor pulled one of the many leavers on the control panel which made the klaxon fire up. A moment later the TARDIS gave a sudden lurch which knocked both the Doctor and Bella of their feet and onto the hard floor.

"No!" The Doctor yelled angrily, pulling himself back up and hitting the control panel with a large hammer.

"What is it?" Bella asked crawling over to the control panel and pulling herself up before moving around until she reached the Doctor, where she grabbed his arm to stop herself falling as the TARDIS gave another lurch.

"We are being followed through time and space!"

"These things have a time machine?"

"No," the Doctor said impatiently. "They've latched on or something or it could even be stolen technology…" he pressed a button and looked to the computer screen. "No, it looks like they've stolen a vortex manipulator from a Time Agent."

"Like Jack's watch?" Bella asked him.

"Kind of, but bigger, the Doctor told her quickly. "They've stolen a whole ship."

"But what the hell are they?"

The Doctor became very still and looked down to Bella. She was looking up to him, her eyes wide with fear. He supposed that that was his fault, as she rarely saw him like this. He sighed. "Do you remember me telling you about the Family of Blood?"

"The ones that you and Martha Jones had to hide from two years ago?" she said, looking to him frowning.

"These things following us must be relatives or something," he said, looking back the controls. "I don't know what they are exactly. They've always been a rumour, but they are ten times worse than the Family of Blood. They want more than immortality; they want control over time itself. With me and the TARDIS they could get it, wrecking havoc everywhere in this universe."

Bella was silent for a moment, still frowning. "Well, if they want you they are going to have to get past me first!" She said, somewhat lightly making the Doctor smile at her. "But seriously, how do we escape them?"

"We can't," the Doctor said quietly, liking how she said _we_. "Not unless we hide from them."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Bella asked, wondering what could possibly be causing his hesitation. "Don't be macho, just do it! You've done it before,"

The Doctor hesitated. "I didn't tell you everything, Bella. The only way to hide from these creatures is to make myself human, rid myself of my Time Lord self and become someone I created. I had no memories of Martha, or Jack or Rose or even the memories I had with them." He paused, looking at her. "You would lose me as you've come to know me, Bella."

"Is this the only way?" She asked him quietly.

"Did they see you?"

"No," she said certainly, shaking her head. "You told me to run before they were close enough."

"Then unfortunately it is the only way." The Doctor admitted sadly.

"Will it hurt you?" She asked, looking at him intensely.

"Yes, I am killing my Time Lord self to become purely human. One of my hearts will stop beating and I will lose all memories, so they won't be able to sense me." He explained to her gently.

"And how do you come back?" Bella asked, just worry in her expression now.

"My true Time Lord self will hide in a fob watch until I open it," he said, not liking the fact that he was going to have to do this to Bella. It had been bad enough having to do it to Martha.

"And that's when you come back?"

"Yes, it is," he told her.

She looked up to him and he could see she was beyond worried. "You will be okay won't you?"

"Yeah," he smiled, hugging her tightly. "Course I will be!"

Bella awoke with a start and it took a moment to remember where exactly she was.

She was lying in her bed in the small room she had been given at the boys' military school located at Geddington in Northamptonshire north of London. Her blankets were pulled close around her as she looked around the room, which was still dark although the sky outside was beginning to lighten. She felt something hard in her right hand, which was still under her pillow. It was the Doctor's silver fob watch that had Gallifreyean writing all over it. She made sure she never went anywhere without it, no matter what it was that she was doing. It made her feel like the Doctor was still with her.

She sighed and got up; placing the fob watch carefully on her bedside table before she lit one of the many candles so she could see what she was doing while she got dressed into her black and white nineteen-twenties maid's outfit. Once dressed, she observed herself in the mirror to do her hair into a loose bun before putting on a large overcoat, black shoes that had a small heal and a scarf that she had taken from the TARDIS. She walked over to the beside table and picked up the fob watch and placed it in her breast pocket, keeping it close to her heart before blowing out the candle and headed out the door for a very early morning walk.

* * *

**_Author's note: Okay, so this is not the most origional episode, and for that I hope you can forgive me. It was one of my earlier stories that I wrote (I'm talking at least three years ago now, and origionally it was with Rose, not Bella). The basic idea was to make it similar to Paul Cornell's two episodes in series three titled Human Nature and the Family Of Blood (brilliant episodes!) but to give them my own little spin, which I hope you will enjoy. This episode (and the next one; it's a two part-er) has changed dramitically over the past few years which is most certainly for the better. I hope you enjoy this one :)_**


	45. Ep9 Deja vu CH2

**Ep9 Déjà vu CH2**

"Have you been out walking again?" asked a high pitched voice that had a heavy London accent as Bella entered the kitchen, taking off her scarf and overcoat.

Bella smiled at the mousy-haired, short maid near her. "Might have, Emily,"

"Oh, you're bloody mad you are!" Emily said disapprovingly, before smiling slightly.

"It's the only way to be!" Bella said, crossing her eyes and poking out her tongue.

"Where do you go, anyways?" Emily asked curiously.

"Wherever I like," Bella answered. "I go a different way, everyday. Helps me think, let's me remember." She paused. "Is that Mr Smith's breakfast?"

"Yeah, tis." replied Emily as she scrubbed a large pot that had most likely contained porridge.

Bella nodded and picked up the tray, taking the bowl of pears off and placing it back on the table. "He doesn't like those," she said, smiling to herself. "I will see you later on," she called as she left the kitchen. She headed up the main staircase and turned left, following the hallway to the end and then turned right which brought her to the teacher's quarters. She walked to the very end of the hallway and knocked on the door that had the sign: _Professor J. Smith_.

"Come in,"

Bella opened the door and walked in. "Morning Mr Smith."

Mr Smith (who was really the Doctor minus the Doctor) was over by his window sill, still in his pyjamas and blue dressing gown.

"Ah, good morning, Bella," he said, turning around and smiling. "I saw you come back from your walk this morning, how is the weather?"

"It was quite chilly, sir, but overall your average winters morning in December, 1920." Bella told him, placing his breakfast tray on his desk. "You might have some difficulties with your weapons training with the younger boys this afternoon, though."

"Oh," He inquired turning and walking towards her.

"I believe it might rain, sir." She told him. "Mind, if it gets any colder it might even snow." She added in afterthought.

"Ah, that only builds character!" Smith said, sitting down at his desk and watching Bella as she moved to the other windows to open the curtains to let the bright sunlight in before beginning to making his bed. "I had an extraordinary dream last night Bella, and you were in it."

Bella stopped and turned to look at him feeling weary.

"It was set in the future, I believe." He continued, picking at his breakfast. "Set in the year of our lord two-thousand and nine and there were these horrid green monsters called Slitheen, I think they were called and they wanted you to help them complete some kind of ship-thing."

Bella felt her mouth drop. He had dreamt of the very first time they had met. _What did that even mean?_

"I was this fantastic man, braver than anything. I could work anything out and I had two hearts. Two!" He exclaimed. "I was called the Doctor by you and those monsters. Of course, I had no idea what was happening half the time, but somehow it felt so real…" he added quietly, more to himself than to Bella.

"You must have been in quite a deep sleep, Mr Smith." Bella managed to say as she turned back to his bed.

"Yes, I imagine so," he smiled. "You must think I am losing my mind."

"Not at all, sir," Bella said quietly. "I have dreams like that all the time."

"Now, Bella, I do hope you are taking this training seriously," said Nurse Derricks reproachfully as Bella pulled faces behind her back to make the ten year old boy smile.

"Of course I am, Matron," Bella said truthfully. "I am honoured that you would take such time and dedication to train me."

"Good," Nurse Derricks said, turning back to the small boy. "Now, give me the names of all the bones in the skull."

"The bones at the front miss?" she asked, frowning.

Nurse Derricks smiled. "Yes, please, Bella,"

Bella frowned in concentration. She knew all the bone structures, of course, but she had to make sure that she named the right ones that a nurse would be expected to know in the nineteen-twenties.

"Right, there's the frontal bone, the frontonasal suture, "she began, using the boy to indicate everything that she said. She ended up getting them all right, which Nurse Derricks seemed pleased about.

Bella liked her. She would have been in her mid thirties and she had a soft round face with light blonde hair. She was fairly tall and slim; a pretty good looking person. She was a kind woman who seemed content with what she did.

"You know, Bella," Nurse Derricks said. "If you were a man, you could probably be a doctor."

Her heart skipped a beat at the mention of 'doctor', as it always did when someone said the word. She smiled.

"One day I am sure women will be able to do all the things that men do," She said, resisting the urge to grin knowingly.

Nurse Derricks shook her head. "You come out with the oddest things sometimes, Bella, and that is defiantly one of them!"

She smiled, knowing not to say anymore. "Yeah, I get that a lot."

"I think you must get it from being with Mr Smith for so long." She continued, looking at Bella, who inwardly groaned. Nurse Derricks had been bringing _Mr Smith_ up at an increasing rate lately. "He says the oddest things, too and it seems as though he is always forgetting things…"

"It's not my place to judge him, miss." Bella said, hoping that this would end the conversation that was heading in a somewhat dangerous direction. The Doctor had given Bella very strict rules about Mr Smith and matrons…


	46. Ep 9 Deja vu CH3

**Ep9 Déjà vu CH3**

Bella went for another walk that evening, in which she passed Matron Derricks talking to a rather uncomfortable looking Mr Smith. She laughed softly to herself. She felt as though she should interrupt their conversation but she didn't really think how she could, considering that despite being trained to become the assistant nurse, she was just a maid.

After walking through the nearby woods down a well lit path from the bright moon light, she arrived at her destination (an old abandoned stone shed) rather quickly and she thought that this route had been the quickest so far. She entered carefully and came across an out of place blue police box.

She turned her key that was on a chain around her neck in the lock and the door clicked open and she went inside.

"Hello," she said smiling and she closed the TARDIS doors behind her. The TARDIS was humming happily, probably glad that someone was coming back to visit her in the Doctor's absence.

As she walked up the ramp, she saw the Doctor's light brown, long overcoat that had been given to him by Janis Joplin (or so he claimed) hanging over part of the coral looking arches. She walked past the helmet that was still dangling from the roof (trying to ignore its existence) and got to the three-seater chair and sat down.

"He'll be back soon," She said aloud, more to comfort herself than the ship. She leant forward and pressed the green button beside the screen on the control panel and the Doctor's attractive face appeared close to the screen with his black, brainy specs on.

"_Is this working?" _He said tapping the screen impatiently, making Bella smile despite herself.

"_Of course it's working!"_ said her own voice, before she saw herself stand beside the Doctor, pointing. _"Look, the little red light is on,"_

The Doctor looked up to the Bella beside him, his eyebrows raised.

"_What?"_

"_Go outside and see if you can find out where we've landed."_ The Doctor ordered before the Bella on the screen moved out of shot, the Doctor watching her. _"But don't wander too far!"_ He called after her as the TARDIS doors opened and closed again. Finally, he looked back to the screen, his face sombre. _"I never thought I would have to do this again,"_ he sighed. _"This will not be as easy as you think. As I said before, I haven't told you everything about the last time this happened for good reason. I am not proud about any of it, which I think is one of the reasons why I didn't tell you._" He rambled.

"_You will be watching this after I have become human because frankly there isn't enough time to tell you all of this in person. So, I hope you don't have any questions!"_ he smiled cheekily. _"Now, number one is very important. Do _not _let me hurt anyone. For all I know I could turn out to be some crazed murderer, which I highly doubt, but you never know. Humans don't tend to like getting hurt, so don't let me do it. Two; the TARDIS will be fine. She will just sit here in hibernation mode. No one will know she's here and no one will be able to track her down. You won't be able to fly her, even with Captain Jack's help. Three; do not let me eat pears. I hate pears and Martha let me eat them last time so all I could taste when I woke up again was pears. It was very bad, so don't let me eat them. Make something up if you have too, just please –"_

"- don't let me eat pears!" Bella finished over the top of him, smiling and shaking her head slightly.

"_Now, five – no –"_he paused. _"Four; do not let me fall for anyone or get myself into any kind of lovey-dovey romantic relationship. Friendships are fine, but _nothing_ more than that, especially school nurses! It didn't turn out so good last time, so don't let anything like that happen again."_

Bella fast-forwarded it, knowing the Doctor went on like this for another ten more minutes at least because she had watched it every day for the past two and a half months. She thought of Nurse Derricks and all the other female staff members who all practically drooled after him. It surprised her that she felt kind of jealous.

"_Twenty-nine; if they find us, Bella, you'll have the watch and you'll know what to do,"_ the Doctor continued seriously. _"Do not open it, _ever_. If you do, they will be able to catch my scent and you'll be a goner. We only have to wait three months before their life span ends, which, ironically, is why they want me and the TARDIS. Remember though, that you are my only hope of returning. Without you I'll be stuck as a human which is defiantly not my idea of a good time._

"_And finally, under no circumstances will you let me leave you behind. This is the most important thing you will ever hear me say to you. Kind of… But I am serious, partly because I need you to keep me safe and partly because I don't want to be without you."_ He smiled at her softly. _"This whole plan kind of depends on you, so no pressure or anything._

"_I will write you into my memory so we will still be together. It all depends on what you tell me when you get back from investigating our when and whereabouts as to what you can be, but don't worry, I'll figure it out!"_

"You could of made me your sister," Bella sighed, looking away from the Doctor's smiling face as she knew what he would say next would be the hardest to hear, as it always was.

"_Oh, and Bella," _the Doctor said grinning. _"Thank you for everything."_

Bella stared at the Doctor's face until the screen went back to just the Gallifreyean text on the background. She sighed and looked around the TARDIS, her home. It had been going great for them after what happened on Nealon. Once she had recovered from being stabbed in the stomach by a Slitheen, the Doctor and her had left Torchwood and after their encounter with the Eternals, they'd had two full weeks of holidaying – or sight seeing as the Doctor preferred to call it – without being chased by evil monsters or anything like that. It had just been the two of them – happy – travelling. Both of them, especially the Doctor, should have known it was too good to last. If only they hadn't gone into the old abandoned planet at the edge of the Scarlet Galaxy and into the run-down warehouse.

She looked up to the helmet-thing that was hanging from the roof and scowled. The Chameleon arch: a thing that destroys a Time Lord and makes them human. Bella had asked the Doctor if it would hurt him and he said yes, but she felt as though he had lied to her, because it didn't hurt him really. It had nearly killed him.

She shivered and folded her arms, pulling her cardigan around her and leant back, wondering if Martha Jones had felt the same way as her two years ago. She just wished that she still had the Doctor so he could tell her everything would be okay…

Matron Derricks sat at a wooden table at the pub in town as her friend Val set a warm beer down on the table for her.

"Thanks, Val," she said smiling as her friend sat down opposite her.

"Not a problem," Val said smiling as she brushed her curly brown hair back out of her face. "You look like you need it tonight, what's the matter? Is that John Smith still oblivious to the fact that you're in love with him?"

"I am not _in love_ with him," Derricks said blushing deeply.

"Right and I just got back from fighting in the war, Charlotte." Val said sarcastically. "What's he done now?"

Derricks bit her lip. "Nothing that's the whole point," She admitted. "He doesn't seem to notice me at all and I think he fancies that Bella Lumic girl."

"His maid?" asked Val looking shocked. "Now come off it, there's no way he would have fallen for her."

"I'm not so sure," Derricks said. "He is always talking about her. It's like every conversation with him leads back to her. He is undoubtedly infatuated with her and I can see it in the way he looks at her."

"Is she interested in him?"

Derricks shook her head. "I don't think so. To be perfectly honest with you I don't think she would realise if someone was in love with her if they confessed to her face, she is so naïve."

"Well, that's not a bad thing, is it?" Val said, taking a sip of beer. "She isn't leading him on. Maybe you should confront him about it, get his thoughts on the matter. Tell him how wrong it is, I mean, she's his maid after all. Make him see sense that you are perfect for him."

"I don't know, Valery." Derricks said slowly. "It is a bit forward."

"If you don't do something drastic he's going to spend all his time chasing after the girl." Val told her before laughing. "You know, he has to be the _only_ man who hasn't fallen for you, which is weird because the girl isn't anything too special."

"Well, obviously she is, because Smith is in love with her!" Derricks snapped before sighing. "Thanks for the ear, Val, but I'd better get back to the school." She stood up and put her thick jacket on.

"Don't worry about Smith, he'll come round." Val said, watching her friend who smiled.

"I'll see you tomorrow maybe," she said before walking out into the cool night air.

She walked along the road before cutting through one of the large fields that was heavily wooded. The moon was fairly bright that night so she could see very well. She looked up to the moon just as a large green light passed over the top of her, only just missing the tops of the tall trees.

Yelling out in shock she moved forward to see what the strange object was.

Back in the TARDIS, Bella sat on the chair in front of the consol her head leaning to the side and her mouth slightly open. She had fallen asleep just sitting there and because of this she missed the computer screen light up and show the trajectory of an object that had landed in a field not too far away.

John Smith walked absentmindedly down the corridor and into the food hall for lunch the following day, not taking much notice on where he was going. He had been thinking of his maid, Bella, a lot since the dream he had had the day before, wondering what it was trying to tell him. It wasn't overly different from the other dreams he had, but this one _felt_ different, like it was important and real, like it had _really_ happened. Shaking his head, he sat down beside his fellow professor, Arthur Daniels.

"Afternoon, Daniels,"

"Ah, hello, Smith," answered the balding professor. "You have lessons outside this afternoon, don't you?"

"Yes I do," Smith answered, placing food on his plate. "Why?"

"The weather is taking a turn for the worst, I'm afraid. I wouldn't be surprised if it snowed."

"Yes, Bella believes so too." Smith said.

Daniels looked at him. "You seem awfully taken with that girl, Smith. Some of us are beginning to get a bit concerned. Even if the Matron is training her to become a nurse, which is very kind of Charlotte Derricks I might add, she is still only a maid. She isn't right for you."

Smith felt his face burn. "I have no idea what you are talking about, Daniels."

Daniels scoffed. "I have seen the way you look at her, John. Like a love-sick school boy! It isn't right, not in the slightest. Yes, I will admit that she is attractive enough, and if she had of been born into the right family she would be quite the catch, but that is my point. She was _not_ born into the right family. You are wasting your time on following her, you need someone respectable that you can marry, not someone you could take advantage of after having a few too many in town."

Smith felt anger rise in his stomach. "I will not have you talk about her in that way, Professor Daniels, nor will I have you insinuate that I would ever do such a thing!"

"No need to get angry, Smith, I am just giving you a head's up on what people are beginning to say around here, that's all…"

Smith looked back to his lunch and played with the food on his plate moodily, not feeling very hungry any more. After a few minutes he gave up and stood and began to walk out of the hall angrily.

Mr Smith paced somewhat angrily once he reached the training fields where it was raining lightly on him and the boys where the cannon guns where aimed over more fields. He still couldn't believe what Arthur Daniels had said to him over lunch. He didn't have any feelings for Bella, or at least that he would admit too…

"Excuse me, Professor Smith?"

Smith turned to find a small red haired boy beside him. "Yes, Henries?" he sighed.

"I was wondering if the guns would seize up in the rain, sir." The small seventeen year old asked nervously. Smith looked over him, observing his small, thin stature.

"The guns we are using today are the same that are used in war." Smith explained. "They will be fine. Now partner up with Mr Parker."

"Sir," Parker laughed, wiping his black hair out of his eyes. "He always asks too many questions!"

"You can never ask too many questions, Mr Parker." Smith said sternly, looking to the tall, good looking boy, the same age as Henries. "And besides, I would rather you students ask too many questions than for you to blow us all up. Now everyone take your posts and we shall begin."

Parker and Henries exchanged a quick smirk. Obviously Smith had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.

Smith stood back to observe his students as they fired each of their weapons at the targets in the field for about twenty minutes. The rain became heavier and visibility began to decrease before one of the cannon guns backfired, knocking four boys off their feet.

"CEASE FIRE!" yelled Smith watching three of the boys sit up.

"Parker?" yelled Smith, running toward the fourth boy who lay still on the ground. As he knelt in the mud, Parker groaned. "Henries go and get the nurse!"

"She's not in today, sir!" Henries said.

"Well, go and get Bella, then!"

"Not her," Parker groaned. "She's just a maid!"

"Don't be stupid, Parker!" Smith snapped, sick of people treating Bella like they were, "She is also the assistant nurse!"

"Professor Smith," Bella called, running towards them through the mud and rain. "I saw the boys fall back – what happened?"

"Their gun misfired," Smith told her, standing up.

'I'm fine," Parker said grumpily as Bella slid to a stop, Smith grabbing hold of her so she didn't fall over. She knelt down beside him, mud staining her black dress.

"Did you hurt your head?" She asked him.

Parker shrugged stubbornly. "Does it matter?"

"I need to know so I can help you,"

He remained silent. Smith opened his mouth to yell at him for being a twat, but Bella placed a hand on his arm to silence him, and he felt his stomach drop uncomfortably at her touch. He looked to her with a funny expression that she missed since she was concentrating on Parker.

"Mr Parker," Bella said felling slightly annoyed. "I realise that you don't like me, but I am the acting nurse seeing as the Matron seems to of disappeared, and I need to know if you are hurt so I can administer the correct treatment or call in a physician." She paused, well aware of the fact that everyone was now looking at her. "Did you hit your head?"

Parker stared at her (as did Smith, who was practically gaping) before nodding.

"Was it when you fell?"

"Yes,"

She gently put her hands on either side of Parker's head and felt for a lump, which she found. Pulling her left hand away she found that it had blood on it. "There is a small cut, nothing too serious, but you may have a mild concussion. Is anywhere else hurting?"

"My ankle," he told her.

She gently took off his shoe and examined his ankle, thinking her little speech had finally gotten through to him. "Can you move it for me?"

He did.

"Well, it's not broken so you've probably just twisted it as you fell backward. I will have to come up later and strap it for you, as unfortunately I am the only _nurse_ here." He looked up to her guiltily. "Who is your dorm mate?"

"Tom Henries," Parker told her.

"Ah, Tom, will you take Mr Parker up to you room?" Bella asked, looking to the young boy who was hovering near them. "I will be up to bandage your ankle, Mr Parker later on. I want you Mr Henries to stay with him until I get there. I will bring you both supper."

"Of course, miss." Tom said as Smith and Bella helped Parker up out of the mud.

"I think we will cancel the rest of the lesson, boys." Smith said and everyone headed back towards the castle as he stood beside Bella in the rain.

"William Parker is the seventh person today to receive an injury because of a malfunctioning weapon." Bella told him quietly, just letting the rain fall over her.

"The seventh?" repeated Smith shocked, looking down to Bella who looked worried.

She nodded. "One of the Professors' hurt themselves earlier this morning while he was demonstrating for the first years. We had to take him into a doctor in town –"

Smith gasped as she said the word 'doctor'. For some reason it gave him goose pimples, like it had some hidden meaning that he had forgotten.

"Well, he wouldn't have had to go into town if Matron Derricks was here, but it seems as though she has disappeared, no one can find her." Bella said, misinterpreting Smith's gasp. "The headmaster is convinced that it is one of the students playing tricks…"

"And what do you think?" Smith asked, looking at her closely and hearing scepticism in her voice.

Bella looked up to him, surprised. "I think that you should be very careful, Mr Smith." She said before walking away from him.

Smith watched her walk back up to the school in the now heavy rain that drenched her from head to toe, wondering what had caused the strange feeling.

Bella wrapped William Parker's foot tightly as he and Tom Henries ate their hot stew. They exchanged looks before Parker asked "Has the Matron disappeared?"

Bella looked up and smiled slightly. She had known they had wanted to ask her something since she arrived.

"I don't know," she told them. "No one does. She hasn't been seen since last night in town. But I am sure she is fine. I don't know if anyone has even checked her house, it always seems to be the last place anyone looks…"

"Do you think she is dead?" Tom asked quietly.

"Don't be stupid Henries," Parker said rolling his eyes.

"Why would you think that, Tom?" Bella asked him seriously.

"Well," he hesitated, exchanging looks with Parker. "There were these weird lights in the sky last night and it would have been about the time that she would have been walking home and one of the students went missing too –"

"Maybe they snuck off together!" Parker laughed.

Bella looked at him and he stopped smiling. "I don't think the Matron would go after a student."

"Mmm," he agreed with her seriously. "She seems much more interested in Professor Smith-"

"That's enough," Bella said coolly. "I may not be as strict or even like the other people who work here, but I will not have you speak like that about _him_. Anyone else, however…" She finished, smiling. "But who is this student that is missing? It's the first I've heard of it."

"Lachlan Rhys," Parker said, thinking that Bella could have a frightening side to her. She seemed to be very protective of Smith. "And you wouldn't have known he was missing because his friends are covering for him. They told the teachers that he was sick and that he was still in bed."

"Why wasn't I informed – wait, I know why I wasn't informed." Bella said darkly, _because no one here likes me because I am just a maid_, she thought bitterly. "But how do you know they aren't telling the truth? Mr Rhys is a very good student, top at everything in his year. He isn't the type to do anything against the rules."

"We saw him," Tom told her. "After lights out last night we were sitting at the window and we saw him climb out of his window."

"I think his _friends_ dared him to sneak out and get some beer or something." Parker said. "Some of the older boys seem to think it's a good idea to get people in the village to hide some beer in the woods so they can go get it at night. I think Rhys does it just so he can get the others off his back."

"I knew what they were doing," Bella said smiling slightly. "I sometimes catch them when I walk in the woods in the evenings. They don't hide the boxes very well. But I don't understand why last night was any different?"

"Because of the lights!" said Tom, obviously getting excited that someone was taking him seriously. "The Matron left – we watched her – and then a few minutes later, Lachlan Rhys left and then later on, I was still sitting at the window and the lights in the sky happened and neither of them had come back –"

"It was probably just a trick of the light, Tom." Parker said dismissively, but Bella could see through his tough act.

"You saw them, I know you did!" Tom said his face flushing.

"It's alright Tom, I believe you." Bella said truthfully. There was all too much coincidence that two people vanish on the same night as mysterious lights show up in the sky. "I'm not sure if anyone else will though, I'm afraid."

"Do you think the malfunctioning weapons have something to do with it to?" Tom asked grinning at her.

"I'm not sure," she answered seriously. The thought had just crossed her mind that all these things were related, and she wasn't altogether sure that humans were responsible. She would have to check the TARDIS for details, but that would have to wait until much later in the night as she still had her maid duties to carry out. She sighed. It was going to be a very long night.

"You don't come from around here do you?" Parker suddenly asked, looking at her closely.

Bella smiled slightly. "No I don't."

"Where do you come from?" Tom asked.

"From down south originally, but now," she paused. "I am a long way from home."

"Wales?" Tom offered. "France, Italy –"

"A bit further than that," Bella smiled, standing up. "You will need to rest your foot for the rest of the afternoon, William, so don't get up and walk on it. I will come and check up on you in the morning and we can decide if you are right to go to your lessons."

"Uh - Thank you," Parker said awkwardly.

Bella smiled again. "Just rest up, William." she said.

Bella stepped out into the cool evening air all rugged up in her overcoat from the TARDIS surprised with how early she had finished her work. She guessed she had Emily to thank for that, who had been performing double duties all day. She discovered that just as she had predicted earlier that morning, it had began to lightly snow. She smiled to herself.

"Evening, Bella," said a familiar voice.

"Mr Smith," she said turning to see him stand up. Apparently he had been waiting for her. She smiled again. Even as John Smith, the Doctor had a flair for fantastic suits. "It's a great night, isn't it?"

"Oh, yes, jolly good!" He smiled awkwardly. "Are you going for a walk this evening?"

"I was about to go now," Bella told him.

"Oh, okay," He said. "I was wondering – that is to say, if you didn't mind – could I – uh – join you on your walk?" He finished nervously.

Bella smiled. "Of course sir," she told him gently.

Smith grinned at her, her favourite Doctor grin and they began to walk towards town. He began talking quickly as Bella thought about where they would go. All her usual routes were out of the question as they all led to the TARDIS, which meant it would have to wait until morning to check the TARDIS for information on the odd lights. She guessed they could go into the village. She could do some asking around about the strange lights, and the Matron's and the boy's disappearances. She shrugged, just enjoying the fact that she actually had someone with her for once.

Once they had reached the village, Bella asked around and found out where the Matron lived. She also found out that an older man had gone missing too. According to his wife, he went out to check that the cows hadn't broke down the fences after dark and he never came back.

Keeping this information in her mind, she and Smith headed towards the Matron's house that wasn't overly far from the school, Smith following rather reluctantly. But when they go there they found nothing out of the ordinary and nothing disturbed. Bella frowned, coming to the conclusion that Matron Derricks never made it home.

Bella sat on her bed that night just staring at the silver fob watch on the pillow in front of her, deep in thought. She hadn't found out much about anything in the village that afternoon. Nobody admitted to seeing the odd lights and those who did were convinced that they had been from meteorites falling from 'outer space'. She couldn find out nothing more about Charlotte Derricks or Lachlan Rhys either.

She felt very uneasy about everything, especially the malfunctioning weapons. The headmaster himself looked over the guns that had backfired on the students and the one teacher and couldn't find anything wrong with them.

Sighing she picked up the fob watch to examine it, but nearly dropped it instead when the Doctor's voice called out from it in warning.

"_Danger!_" his voice said.

Bella gasped, jumping up. "Doctor," She put the watch in her dressing gown pocket and ran out her bedroom door and headed as fast as she could up to the Doctor. She opened his door and ran in, finding the Doctor (or John Smith, rather) backed up against the wall with a woman with short blonde hair holding his throat.

"Matron _Derricks_?" Bella gasped feeling bewildered.

She turned around when Bella spoke and let out a roar of frustration before letting Smith go and running to the window. She climbed up on the sill before jumping out.

Bella moved quickly to the window and looked down to see the Matron landing two stories down and running away before she slammed it shut, making sure it was locked.

"Mr Smith, are you alright?" She asked, moving towards him slowly as she tried to take everything in. She hadn't thought that the Matron would be that forward in this day and age. "Mr Smith?"

He looked to her and nodded.

Unconvinced, she gently took his arm and led him over to his bed and sat him down, a million things running through her head.

"I was just sitting at my desk, writing in my journal." He said quietly. "She grabbed me from behind…"

"And you didn't hear her enter?" she asked him sharply.

He shook his head.

"We should tell the headmaster when you are feeling up to it." Bella told him as she began to start picking up papers from the floor. She noticed a leather-bound book on the ground and picked it up. It fell open in Bella's hands and she saw what had been drawn there. It was a Dalek.

"What is this?" She whispered in shock.

"That is my journal of impossible things. I write down my dreams in there, I thought I might pass it off as fiction one day." He told her proudly. "And that is a thing called a _Dalek _I believe."

She sunk to the bed in shock and turned the pages. Smith had written all about his _adventures_ as the Doctor and drawn pictures of all kinds of aliens. The Daleks were there, as were the Slitheen, the Judoon, the Clockwork droids and the Mammonteal and these things that Bella recognised as Cybermen, the ones that had attacked Earth in 2006 plus many more that Bella could not identify. The TARDIS was drawn multiple times throughout the book and there were drawings of various companions. She found a page that had Rose, Martha, Donna and Jack drawn and she realised that this was the first time she had ever seen the three beautiful women, _no wonder Jack liked to travel with the Doctor_, she smirked. The following page had ten faces drawn on it, The Doctor's face being the last. Still wondering who they all were, she turned the page and found a large portrait of herself.

"I dream of you every night, Bella." Smith said quietly beside her.

She looked to him, surprised.

"In my dreams, we go on such marvellous adventures and we battle with strange creatures, but we are always together and I think I know why."

Bella sat dumbstruck. She hadn't realised that John Smith could work out that he was actually a Time Lord in human disguise. The Doctor never warned her about that! She wondered if the Doctor himself knew that he could do that.

"I've been feeling like this for a long time, more than our two months here." He said quietly before gently stroking her left cheek.

She looked up to him feeling the colour rise slightly on her cheeks. She was confused. _Why was he acting like this?_

"When you're not with me it feels as though a part of me is missing." He continued softly. "Yet every moment I spend in your presence I feel as though I could never be happier."

"Sir?" she whispered, her voice shaking ever-so-slightly.

"Bella, I have never felt more strongly for anyone in my life!"

_Hang on_, she thought to herself, alarm bells ringing now. That_ doesn't have anything to do with being a Time Lord._

He touched her face again and moved closer to her. Bella could see every detail of his soft brown eyes that seemed to be filled with the universe. He was so close and Bella knew she should put a stop to this but she was frozen in place, she didn't know what to do, her brain seemed as though it had stopped functioning.

His lips touched hers for a brief moment, before he pulled back from her, surveying the expression on her face before leaning in once again after receiving no objections from Bella.

Taken completely off guard, Bella kissed him back, her hands reaching up for his gorgeous brown hair. He pulled her closer to him, one hand on her face, the other on her waist, kissing her softly, yet with a longing that he knew he'd never really experienced before.

A thought suddenly formed in her non-working brain which made her pull away from Smith suddenly. She stood up, the journal falling to the ground unnoticed. When she thought about it, she didn't think she would really mind if the Doctor suddenly snogged her, after all, they had known each other for a while now and even though Bella had sworn when they first met that it would never be more than friendship, how could it not? Everything they had gone through, all the times he had saved her, and all those long hours spent together travelling, how could she not end up falling for him? But that was just it. That was all with the Doctor. The man she was standing before was not the Doctor. They looked the same, said the same things every now and then, had the some of the same mannerisms and had the same flair for fantastic suits but he wasn't _her_ Doctor.

"Bella?" asked Smith, moving to his feet.

"I – I'm sorry," she said, her voice shaking. "I can't do this…" She began to turn.

"Bella," He said, grabbing her hand in his, a gesture he had done so many times before as the Doctor. "Why? Is it because you are my maid? Because people don't think you are good enough for me?"

"No –"She probably should have said yes to that… "I mean, yes –"

"Because I don't care!" he declared to her. "I love you!"

Bella froze and stared at him unbelievingly, her eyes wide. She remembered the conversation she had had with Jack when the Doctor had left her at Torchwood to try and save her race from extinction. He told her that a certain Time Lord could never say those three words. She felt sick.

"I can't," she choked, feeling tears build up in her eyes. "I am so sorry!"

She quickly turned from him and walked out the door, closing it shut behind her. She walked around the corner and stopped, leaning against the wall and putting her face in her hands. "You never warned me that you might fall in love with me!" She cried, trying to hold herself together.

She ran downstairs, thinking she would go to the TARDIS, but she only got as far as the snow covered courtyard before she sunk down to an icy seat.

She felt so confused and upset. How did she not see that coming and how did she not realise how she was beginning to feel about the Doctor, it kind of just hit her like she had run into a brick wall. The Doctor would be back to normal in a few weeks and they could go travelling again, never looking back, but would he remember all that he experienced as John Smith?

She felt her face flush. They had been through so much together and they had a lot of things in common now, like they were both the last of their kinds. She hated to think how awkward things would become if he did remember, it could ruin an already perfect friendship –

"Bella?" said a soft voice.

She jumped up and turned to see Smith approaching her.

"John," she said before noticing the colour draining from his face. "Sir?"

"Bella, look out!" He yelled, but it was too late.

Nurse Derricks stood behind Bella with a large stone in her hand. She forcefully hit the stone across the back of Bella's head, and she fell into the white snow, crimson staining it beside her head. Nurse Derricks knelt down and took something out of Bella's dressing gown pocket before standing back up and taking a threatening look at Mr Smith.

"You are certainly an odd pair, Mr Smith." She said charmingly.

"What have you done?" He ordered before two students came running towards them.

The nurse's eyes narrowed. "We shall call again, Mr Smith…" And with that, she turned on her heel and ran out the open wooden gates.

Smith ran forward and collapsed beside Bella, picking her up in his arms. He looked up from her pale face when he sensed movement from in the shadows directly opposite him. He saw a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes and she had a sad expression on her pale face. She looked so familiar to him but he just could place her. He blinked and she disappeared. "Bella," he said, looking back down to the girl in his arms. "Wake up!"

"Mr Smith, what's going on?" said William Parker with Tom Henries behind him as they came to a halt beside him. "What's happened to Bella?"

He looked up from Bella's blood stained face to the two boys. "Lock the gate and inform the Headmaster that two of his employees have just been attacked by Nurse Derricks…"

**TO BE CONTINUED... **


	47. Ep10 The Family of Pain

**Episode Ten – The Family of Pain**

_**Author's note: So this chapter is the entire tenth episode in full. I thought I would do it this way because the previous episode didn't really generate much interest, which is understandable, since it wasn't the most original idea. It's a bit scary, there are only three episodes left in the series, two before the massive (if I do say so myself) series finale! Keep an eye out for little clues leading up to it, because I've been leaving them since the very first episode!**_

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Nurse Derricks ran from the school, hearing the two young boys locking the gate behind her. _As if that could stop her_, she thought to herself smiling while she ran quickly towards the village. She heard people call to her in the night, or rather call to the body she inhibited, for she was not Nurse Charlotte Derricks. No, she was far more advanced than that. She belonged to the Family of Pain, one of the most feared on her home planet.

She smiled at that thought. When her and her family find the Doctor and his unique time travelling space ship they would have control over their planet, the universe and time itself, not to mention immortality.

But that was the underlying problem. They couldn't find the Doctor. He had indeed hid himself very well, but it was a shame that he had not hidden his half alien companion as well as he did himself, for she thought she knew who it was.

Slowing to a walk, Derricks walked across a field and pushed on something that was invisible to human eyes; the door to her lovely stolen space ship.

"Mother of Mine, is that you?" asked an eighteen year old boy, walking around the corner to greet his mother.

"Yes Son of Mine, it is I," she said, as an older man in his fifties stopped beside his son. "I have some interesting news, my family. We all agreed that the Time Lord's scent is mainly found around that Bella Lumic, scattered and confused. I managed to get close to her tonight, and her smell is different from the humans. She is undoubtedly alien, though some portion of her blood is human. Sounds like the type of person that would attract the Doctor, don't you think?"

The man grinned. "Brilliant Wife of Mine, we must capture her and find out the whereabouts of her Doctor and his ship –"

"There is really no point, Husband of Mine," Derricks said, holding up the Doctor's fob watch that she had taken out of Bella's dressing gown pocket. "The scent is strong around this watch, so all we have to do is open it –"

"But what of the ship?" asked the old man.

"In this body's memory, there is something about the girl walking of an evening," Derricks said. "She would go a different way everyday, but her scent will be easy enough to follow now we have identified it."

"Excellent," the man said, grinning.

The old man walked through the woods, following the scent of the Doctor's half alien companion. There was a large trace of her scent but it all seemed to be heading in one particular direction. There were of course a few exceptions, but he ignored this because he knew they headed into the town.

He continued following the scent through the well lit woods hearing insignificant Earth animals scurrying to get out of his way. He walked for at least half an hour before he finally came across an old wooden shed that was in disrepair. Smiling eagerly, he opened the wooden door and his eyes fell upon a blue police box, its small, square windows glowing. His eager smiled turned into that of a triumphant one.

Derricks and Rhys stood in the school's entrance courtyard looking at the four men and the two boys standing in the doorway.

"Come Charlotte," the headmaster said slowly. "What is going on? Is this some kind of joke that has gotten out of hand?"

"I can assure you headmaster, this is no joke." Derricks said coldly.

"Has alcohol played a part in this mess?" the headmaster asked frowning.

"Why would we consume that foul drink?" Rhys asked hotly, moving forward, but Derricks grabbed him.

"Be careful Son of Mine," she said quietly. "Remember these bodies we are in are ever so fragile. One shot from one of their primitive weapons could be the end."

"Charlotte," said professor Daniels moving forward past the headmaster. "I think I know what this is about, and I think you are being a little extreme."

"Do you?" she smiled as they both looked to him.

Daniels nodded. "I myself have told Smith that his infatuation with the girl is ridiculous, but how you are carrying on is not much better."

Derricks shook her head and lifted a small ray gun and shot him, his body turning to dust. The teachers and the students gave cries of alarm and ran back into the school. The headmaster bravely stood his ground.

"What is it you want?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly.

"We want the Doctor," Derricks ordered. "And if we don't get him we shall blow up the entire school and kill every student and teacher. If that doesn't work we will move onto the village and if that doesn't weed him out we will destroy his favourite planet and then his precious companion, Bella."

Rhys smiled. "Tell Bella that we would like her company too please headmaster."

"We shall be waiting just outside the gates for them," Derricks smiled before pointing the gun at him. "Off you go!" she yelled as he gave a gasp before running inside too.

John Smith was asleep on a long wooden chair against a wall snoring quietly and murmuring incoherently before suddenly sitting bolt upright, his eyes flying open. He had been dreaming of when he had been with Bella in 1810 up in Scotland where the Mammonteal had picked up Bella and little Sally MacGregor and attempted to drown them in the lake –

He suddenly shook his head roughly, reminding himself that it was just a dream and that it hadn't actually happened…

"Pull yourself together!" He told himself, standing up and pacing up and down the corridor waiting for some scrap of news. He could scarcely believe what was going on. First, Charlotte Derricks had attacked him, rambling on about something called a Time Lord and immortality, then she had attacked Bella and took something from her pocket and _now_ she and Lachlan Rhys and Mr Jeffs from in the farm just outside the village were threatening to destroy the school, killing everyone inside it, if _he_ didn't give _himself_ up!

"I never realised the Matron fancied you that much, Smith." Arthur Daniels had said to him once he had told the headmaster and the rest of the staff what had happened only an hour ago. "It's always what happens, though. She saw how you looked at that _maid_ and she became jealous. You should have listened to my advice…"

But Smith had remained adamant that she must of gotten him confused with someone else, for they all kept calling him a doctor which confused him greatly. Matron Derricks knew that he was no such thing. He wondered how she had become so infatuated with him in the first place. He had never spoken to her that much and he had only known her two and a half months and he certainly didn't have an overly desirable effect on women, as he had discovered with Bella…

"Mr Smith!"

Smith turned and found William Parker running towards him. "What's happening?"

"The Matron, sir," Parker said, panting slightly. "She's still ordering for you, but now she wants Bella as well!"

"What?"

"I'm not sure why, sir, she won't say, but she is still calling you a doctor."

Smith shook his head furiously.

"But there's more," Parker continued, his voice shaking slightly now. "The Matron – she – she –"he swallowed. "She _shot_ Professor Daniels with a strange gun – Headmaster Williams is furious, sir. He's barred the gate and is arming all the boys with weapons to fight!"

An odd feeling crept over Smith and he didn't know what it was or what caused it, but the thought of the young boys _fighting_ a mad woman with a strange gun made him feel ill. He needed to put a stop to this…

Bella stirred and opened her eyes. She was in her room in the maids' quarters. As she moved her head slightly, she moaned. She had one hell of a headache.

"Bella!" cried Emily loudly, making Bella screw her face up in pain. Emily rushed to her bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Bella answered automatically, before she tried to remember what had happened to make her feel like this. She could remember sitting here in her room and picking up the Doctor's Fob watch, the Doctor's voice telling her that danger had been near. She had rushed up to his room to find Nurse Derricks pinning him against the wall before jumping out the window. Then Bella had found John Smith's diary and she had found the picture of her, that had depicted her far more beautiful than she really was. Then he had kissed her. She still couldn't quite believe that it had happened… After that she had run out of his room and out into the snow covered courtyard, where he had followed her. The last thing she remembered was the look on his face, one that she had never seen with the Doctor's features before; it was proper fear and it wasn't right.

"John," she gasped suddenly. "Is he okay?"

"Relax, Bella, he's fine." Emily told her calmly. "But you really shouldn't call him by his first name, it's improper. You are his maid after all…"

"Yeah, course…" She said deep in thought. Derricks must have hit her over the head to knock her out –

"There are lots of nasty rumours flying around, Bella." Emily said hesitantly, trying to read Bella's reactions. "Some are saying that you _kissed_ –"

Bella sat up, rubbing the back of her head where she could feel a lump and dried blood. The cut would have healed in under a minute, but nobody here realised that. Her expression turned sour at the thought of their kiss and colour rose in her cheeks slightly.

"And Mr Smith has been trying to get answers from the Matron about why she attacked you –"

"He's _what_?" Bella gasped jumping up out of bed, her head spinning drastically.

"Oh, Bella, you really must rest –"

"Can't Emily," Bella said, begging to strip off her night clothes so she could put her maid's uniform on. "Too much to do, errands, chores – my work load had doubled since Derricks has gone AWOL –"

"You'll be doing no such thing," Emily stated. "The school is in lockdown!"

Bella froze, halfway into her dress.

"Has been since you were brutally attacked," Emily told her. "Matron Derricks and her two friends have been ordering for some kind of doctor to come out. The headmaster has been telling them that we don't have a doctor, but they just won't listen –"

"They've found us…" Bella whispered still halfway into her dress, fear like nothing else she had known before flooding through her. She felt like she could throw up. She would have to find the Doctor and take him back to the TARDIS. Chloroform would be useful – no, she wouldn't be able to carry him. Maybe he would just follow her there? She could put on the charm – no, she wouldn't be able to go through with that…

"Who has?"

"I can't explain, I need the –"again, Bella froze, a new even more terrifying wave of fear washing over her. "Who changed me after I was attacked?"

"I did," Emily told her proudly. "Looked after you good and proper, I did."

"Emily, there was a watch," Bella said urgently, grabbing Emily's arms. "There was a silver fob watch in my dressing gown pocket, where is it?"

"There wasn't one, Bella," Emily said, alarmed at her friend's behaviour. "I would have noticed something like that."

Bella felt as though she couldn't breathe. "I've lost it… I've lost _him_…"

"Lost who, Bella?"

"Where is John Smith?" Bella ordered.

"H-he's up in the courtyard, why?"

Bella didn't answer her; she just pulled up her dress, put on her shoes and her overcoat and ran out her door, her head pounding painfully, and headed to the front courtyard, which was full with teachers and students fully armed. She came to an abrupt halt and searched for John Smith; he was standing up behind the Headmaster, holding the gun half-heartedly and looking furious as the headmaster gave his call-to-arms speech.

"Students –"he called melodramatically. "I would never have imagined that we would be going to war on our own soil, but alas, war is always unlooked for –"

Bella looked furiously to her right and found William Parker and Tom Henries standing not too far away from her, they too holding guns.

"William, what's going on?" She whispered frantically as she stood beside him.

"Bella, you're okay!" Tom said, grinning happily.

"We are going to war, Bella!" William said urgently looking to her as her blonde hair moved in the slight wind.

"With whom?" she asked frantically.

"Lachlan Rhys, the Matron and Mr Jeffs from the village!" said William quickly.

"They have turned on us," the Headmaster continued. "If they want a war, then it is a war they shall get –"

"Are you completely bonkers?" Bella said full of frustration as the snow fell about them lightly. "If you go out there you will be slaughtered! The weapons they would posses!"

The Headmaster glared at her. "You forget your place, servant."

Bella felt a wave of fury wash over her. She was scared and she had had enough of being treated like rubbish. She was going to make these men listen to her if it was the last thing she ever did. "Pack it in, you old fool!" She said, seeing a look of recognition flash across John Smith's face.

"And she isn't a _servant_, Headmaster," William declared.

"Bella is the assistant nurse!" Tom said rather bravely, "The assistant nurse with common sense!"

"You have no right to be out here, woman. Battle is for men."

"Men?" she repeated loudly. She had no fear of Williams, he reminded her too much of the elders back on Nealon and there was no way she was going to let him walk all over her like they had. "The only men I see are the ones standing beside you, _headmaster_. Down here I am surrounded by boys who are still terrified at the thought of using a gun, let alone using it to kill. The number of your _enemy_ doesn't matter. They will win no matter what you do. You haven't got a chance…"

"You saw what happened to Professor Daniels, sir," William said. "There was nothing left of him, nothing at all…"

"You have all resorted to women's thinking!" The headmaster spat, disgusted.

"No," Smith said suddenly, moving forward and looking at Bella. "They have resorted to using their brains. Bella is right, we cannot possibly fight them. They will destroy us!" He put down his gun.

"_Bella_," someone said over the wall in a sing-song voice. "_Oh Bella?" _she continued.

It was the nurse.

"When you have finished bickering with the humans, Bella, would you be so kind as to join my family and I out here for a nice little chat?"

Bella gulped and moved forward, thinking it was better if it was just her as opposed to the whole entire school that was killed, but someone suddenly grabbed her hand. She turned to look at the person holding her and her stomach gave an uncomfortable lurch. It was John Smith.

"You cannot go out there, Bella, are you crazy?" He asked her quickly and quietly, his face worried.

"Yes, I can," Bella said as she pulled her hand out from his. "I am more than capable at keeping myself out of trouble by using _words_ not _guns_. I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but it has been only the men so far that has started wars."

"That is not the point, Bella," Smith said. "You are not going out there alone!"

"Yes, I am!"

"You need back up," William said, as both he and Tom lifted their guns.

"No –"she started, but Smith had already begun to move forward.

"Come one, they want a word," he said, sounding very much like the Doctor.

And so Bella had no choice but to follow Smith out of the gates practically fuming, William and Tom either side of her. But the three males all stopped short when they saw the Family of Pain's extra large space ship a few hundred meters down the road. Bella, who had been expecting something like this, walked forward a bit, looking at the three figures standing before her; the Matron, Lachlan Rhys and Mr Jeffs, Lachlan smiling at her.

"You look so very dainty in your maid outfit, Bella."

"Who exactly are you?" Bella ordered strongly.

"We are the Family of Pain, "Lachlan (who Bella knew wasn't actually Lachlan any more) said, bowing slightly. "This is mother of mine and father of mine, and we would have had scarecrows too but the Family of Blood's son is now every scarecrow in Britain and he was very reluctant to help us." he told her indicating the others. "Our real names are much too difficult to comprehend, even for a seasoned _time traveller_ such as yourself, Bella."

"How do you know me?" Bella asked fear edging its way back into her voice.

"That is for us to know and you to not," Mr Jeffs said. "Son of Mine why don't you show her what we have?"

The three of them all looked to their right so Bella followed their gaze to her left.

"No," she gasped. They had managed to somehow find the TARDIS. "How did you find her?"

They all laughed cruelly.

"The Doctor is not as clever as he'd like to think!" Derricks sneered.

"The Doctor is brilliant!" Bella argued angrily.

"He must have realised that the only thing we can't track is human, which is why he turned himself into one, but he left you as you are. You are only _half_ human, Bella. You were hard to trace, yes, but it was not impossible." Rhys explained, smiling.

"And now that we have his ship, we only need his brilliant mind." Jeffs said, holding out the silver fob watch.

"No!" Bella said, beginning to panic.

"What is that box?" Smith asked, staring at it as he moved forward slightly.

"She's the TARDIS," Bella said softly. "She was in your dreams…"

"But, why?" he whispered.

"Because you _are_ the Doctor, Mr Smith," Rhys said grinning. "Just ask your faithful_ companion…_"

Smith looked to Bella as voices started saying things in his head, like old memories were resurfacing. _"Companion… She's the TARDIS… Brilliant… Time Lord… Rose… Fantastic… Dalek… Doctor… Gallifrey… The last of the Time Lords… Just like Alice, I try to believe five impossible things before breakfast… Bella… Alons-y Alonso… The TARDIS… DOCTOR! Bella… BELLA!_

"Bella," he said looking to her, confused.

"Those dreams you had, the ones you wrote down, they weren't dreams." She said quietly. "They all happened to you, you _are_ the Doctor. The TARDIS is your ship and your consciousness is in that fob watch."

"I don't understand –"

"You had to become human in order to hide from _them_." She told him, her voice sounding bitter to Smith.

"And now _we_ need you Doctor," Said Jeffs, throwing Bella the fob watch, which she caught. "Other wise we will blow up the whole school." He added mildly, everyone gasping except Bella.

"I think I have done enough damage," Bella said quietly. "I need you now, Doctor."

Smith felt very confused as Bella held out her hand with the watch in it. Not knowing what else to do, he reached out to grab the watch, both of them holding it at the same time.

They both suddenly saw a vision, which had him and Bella walking hand-in-hand in the snow. It changed and it now had Bella in a beautiful white gown as he picked her up and kissed her joyfully, both of them grinning at each other. Next he was sitting on the side of Bella's bed as she handed him a newborn baby boy. He saw himself sitting on lush, green grass with Bella wrapped soundly in his arms as he kissed the top of her head affectionately as three children (two boys and a girl) ran happily behind them –

The vision suddenly stopped as Bella pulled her hand away from the watch, staring emotionally at the ground.

"That could never happen," she said very quietly.

"But it could," Smith said quickly, not wanting to give up. "We could spend the rest of our lives together! Could your – your _Doctor_ give you that?"

"Don't –"Bella said painfully.

"Do you prefer him over me?" Smith asked somewhat harshly. "Is this _Doctor_ better than me? Would he be able to save those who have died?"

"You _are_ the Doctor!" Bella said strongly. This was so hard. "You're just missing the Time Lord part –"

"Does he love you?" He asked quietly.

Bella froze, feeling sick. "No," she whispered looking away from him, surprised by how much that answer hurt her.

"So you expect me to become this brilliant man who can save lives and fight monsters?" He said angrily, tears in his eyes. Bella couldn't imagine the Doctor crying. "I could travel to different worlds and go back in time, but I could never love you?"

The words seemed to hit Bella like a slap in the face. Fighting back tears, she said "Doctor, I –"

"Don't call me that!" He yelled taking a step back. "I am John Smith."

Bella recoiled slightly, feeling tears welling up in her eyes. "I don't think yo- he thought you would fall in love, especially with me –"

"What kind of a person doesn't expect to fall in love with you?" He asked her emotionally. "And how do you expect me to become him when you say he doesn't love you?"

Bella looked at him, tears trickling from her gorgeous eyes, lost for words.

"Just open the watch already!" snapped Rhys, growing impatient.

"WHY?" Bella roared, turning from Smith and taking a step towards the Family of Pain aggressively. "Why do you _need_ him anyway? You can create enough havoc with just the TARDIS by herself, why can't you just leave him _alone_!"

She almost screamed the last part. She felt as though she could stand no more, that her tears would finally just flow from her eyes and she would collapse in a crumpled heap on the ground.

"You're very protective aren't you?" Derricks said, grinning and they could all hear the laughter in her voice.

"Just leave him alone," she pleaded. "He is everything I have; I can't just give him up!"

William and Tom suddenly gasped behind her and she turned to Smith, who was looking at her.

"He really means that much to you?" He asked her softly no longer crying as he looked at her as if for the very first time.

She smiled slightly through her tears. "He may not love me Mr Smith, but he is my best friend. He is the only person I have left and I could really use his help right now. The whole situation has gone a bit beyond me…"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that…" He smiled ever-so-slightly.

"Please open the watch," Bella asked him.

He looked down to the silver fob watch that had Gallifreyean text engraved on it and then to the family of pain. They couldn't see what he was doing. _Good_, he though before clicking the watch open, nothing happening.

"Doctor?" whispered Bella.

"I'm still John Smith," he told her quietly, not able to look her in the eye.

Bella stared at him in utter shock and disbelief, looking completely shattered. New tears formed in her brilliantly blue eyes and she took a few steps backward and he thought that she may faint.

"So what are you going to do Mr _Smith_?" Derricks asked. "I am sure we can come to some kind of agreement." She added, pointing her strange looking gun at Bella, who was too devastated that she didn't even notice.

"No," he said quickly; panic edging its way into his voice. He moved forward.

"This isn't my fault, this Doctor person made me…"

"Your point?" said Rhys in a bored voice.

"I – I want to make a proposition," Smith said nervously. "With you and your family away from the school in your ship-thing…"

"No," Bella said, her voice shaking violently with fear. "You can't –"

William suddenly took hold of her arm, holding her where she was and Smith gave him a quick subtle nod.

"I have a chance at making sure no one else dies and since you don't lo-"he broke off. "The Doctor is already gone." He finished quietly, unable to look her in the eye. He didn't say it cruelly, but Bella hardly noticed.

"No – You can't – _please_!" She cried to him, struggling against William and now Tom too.

Smith didn't look at her as he followed the Family of Pain onto their odd looking – and probably stolen – space ship.

"So Mr Smith," Mr Jeffs said smugly. "What is your proposition?"

Smith stumbled to the side as he took in the strange green interior. "I – I will give you the T – time Lord Stuff – the part of this Doctor who is in the watch, as long as you leave the school and Bella alone."

"Aww, little Bella," Derricks cooed.

"You would give it up freely?" Jeffs asked, amazed.

"Yes, if you agree to my requests." He said. "You just need to open it, after you promise me Bella's safety."

The three of them nodded, and he held out the watch in his right hand, which the son took greedily. He stumbled backward into the wall, pressing all the buttons clumsily, yet on purpose.

"Open it!" Derricks ordered and her son obeyed and opened the fob watch.

They all sniffed but they couldn't smell anything different. They looked up to Smith, who seemed to have changed.

"You know," he said quietly. "I showed some mercy on your cousins. They wanted to live forever; I gave them that, but you… You have hurt Bella and if there is one thing to make me furious past the point of mercy is that. Well, that and genocide. Well, that genocide and a few other things… I will give you the same advise I gave to the Family of Blood; RUN!"

He ran out the door that they had come in, the Family of Pain gasping in surprise as they realised that he had tricked them. They quickly moved to the various buttons that the Doctor had pushed, finally realising why he was so feared.

William and Tom had managed to pull Bella behind a small stone wall as Mr Smith had told him to do moments before. William watched as Bella sunk almost lifelessly to the ground where silent, unchecked tears flowed freely down her pale face.

She had lost the Doctor. She didn't even care that she was now stranded in the 1920's alone. That thought didn't even cross her mind. She had lost the one thing she cared most about in the world – the Doctor. He was gone and it had been her fault for losing the fob watch –

BANG!

Bella didn't flinch as the spaceship behind her blew up; she just crunched her face up as though it had caused her pain, feeling devastated, tears trickling down her face still. Now the John Smith version of the Doctor had gone too –

"Bella," a soft voice behind her said. She turned, remaining on the ground and saw –amazingly – John Smith looking down at her with the Doctor's kind, brave face, looking slightly worried at her empty expression.

"Bella, it's me," he said quietly, his eyes wide with concern. "I had to pretend that I didn't change back so I could get on their ship. I know I told you not to let me hurt any humans, but they were long gone and they blew themselves up… I merely pushed some buttons…"

She stood up, staring at him.

"It's me," he smiled lightly. "Two hearts, Time Lord again."

She looked at him for a moment before she lifted her right hand, slapping him across the face. She didn't do it hard, but it was enough to startle him.

"Ow!" he gasped, lifting his left hand to his face to rub it slightly, his expression softening. "Yeah, I suppose I deserved that one… I am so sorry…"

She looked at him, tears in her eyes and let out a sob, covering her face with her hands. The Doctor quickly pulled her into his arms and held onto her tightly, where, for the first time in her life, she clung to him and just cried.

"I'm sorry, Bella," he said softly, stroking her hair as she cried into his suit. "I am so sorry…" He said, kissing her lightly on her head.

Bella stood outside on a grassy hill, the TARDIS behind her. It was the following morning after the destruction of the spaceship and the Family of Pain and more importantly the return of the Doctor. They had done quite a lot of damage control and clean up and now, Bella was saying goodbye to William and Tom.

"Knew you didn't come from around here," William said.

"Was it that obvious?" Bella smiled.

William shrugged. "You were just different, that's all. Not a bad different, mind." He added hastily. "Its just you treated everyone the same, like equals."

"Yeah," Bella agreed. "I am a bit out of my time."

"Are you and Mr Smith like those creatures?" Tom asked.

"No, the Doctor and I are nothing like them."

"But you don't come from – from Earth?" William struggled to say.

Bella grinned. "No, no we don't."

"Where are you going to go now?" Tom asked enthusiastically.

"I dunno," Bella admitted. "The Doctor kinda makes it up as we go along."

"C'mon, Bella!" the Doctor yelled from inside the TARDIS.

"Alright," Bella answered. "Well, it was a pleasure meeting you both boys." She said smiling.

"We'll miss you, Bella." Tom said, looking away.

Bella bit her lip, and then hugged the red haired boy, who blushed, before turning to William.

"It's true though, Bella." He said, his cheeks reddening too. "You were the only one who really cared about us students. You're one in a million…"

Bella looked at him and smiled, before lightly kissing him on the cheek. "So are you, William."

Taking one last look at the boys, she turned and smiled as she saw the TARDIS glistening in the snow and her excitement began to build. She walked inside and shut the door behind her and saw the Doctor rummaging through his long overcoat.

"Where to now?" the Doctor asked joyfully as he pulled his sonic screwdriver out with Bella's favourite Doctor-grin.

"Bed," Bella yawned, heading towards the spiral staircase.

The Doctor smiled at her. "I will land her at the rift in Cardiff." He told her. "The flight here took a lot of power."

"Okay," Bella smiled.

"Uh, Bella?" the Doctor asked awkwardly as she stoped and looked to him. "About the other night, when – you know –"

Bella's face flushed and her eyes widened slightly when she realised what the Doctor was referring to. "You remember that?"

"I – uh – sorry you had to be in that situation…" he trailed off awkwardly, ruffling up his hair.

She bit her lip and nodded, feeling slightly embarrassed. "So, uh – when exactly did you change back then?" she said, changing the subject.

"When you turned around to give the Family of Pain a mouthful." he told her, obviously glad for the change of subject too. "Thanks for that by the way," he grinned.

Bella smiled at him. "No problem at all – oh!" she reached into her long overcoat that was covering the maids' uniform that she was still wearing and pulled out a leather-bound book. She walked back to the Doctor and handed to him. "I thought it might cause a bit of trouble if you left it here not that I read any of it other than what I read that night… but – uh – there was one page that had drawings of ten faces, yours being the last and I was wondering who they all were."

"They were all me," he explained to her as she sat beside him on the chair. "Time Lords have this special ability to change their bodies when we get hurt. It's our way of healing ourselves, like you have your own way."

"So every time you get hurt, you just regenerate?"

"Not every time." He said. "It only happens if the wounds are serious enough, sometimes we so just die because we don't have enough time to regenerate and sometimes a Time Lord can choose to _not_ regenerate."

"Like the Master did?" Bella asked quietly.

"Yeah," the Doctor nodded sadly. "Although, a Time Lord can only regenerate thirteen times,"

"So, you can only regenerate three more times?" She asked. "You have to start being more careful."

"Sure thing!" the Doctor laughed, looking at Bella. "When you went for walks, you came to the TARDIS, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Bella said. "She kept me sain, although, in hindsight it probably wasn't a good idea."

"They would have found her anyway, I think. They were certainly persistent." The Doctor said. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, of course,"

"Why didn't you read this?" He asked looking down to the diary in his hands, his mind buzzing with curiosity.

"I didn't know I was meant to," she said honestly, looking a bit confused.

"But didn't you _want_ to read it?" He asked, feeling as though Bella was different to anything he'd ever known. "Weren't you overcome with curiosity?"

Bella smiled crookedly. "That's John Smith's diary, Doctor."

"John Smith _was_ me, Bella." The Doctor pointed out. "Just as I _am_ John Smith, he is in here somewhere…" He added pointing to his head. "You saw what I dreamt, every adventure we had had together and quite a few from the past as well."

"I had noticed some similarities between the two of you Doctor," Bella laughed. "But other things were nothing like you!" she fought the urge to say something about Smith kissing her, but that thought made her blush, so she thought better of it. "The main reason I didn't read the diary, Doctor, was because that everyone has secrets that they don't particularly feel like sharing with others and even nine-hundred and six year old Time Lords are entitled to their privacy. Besides, you've told me a lot about your past and about you and I didn't want to read something that you didn't want me to know. I guess you could call it respect, but I dunno a lot about that!"

The Doctor laughed as she stood up.

"I will see you when I wake up next, if you don't mind?" Bella said grinning broadly.

"Ha! Go right ahead," He smiled, watching her descend the stairs. He couldn't quite believe his luck with Bella, she was a great person, didn't get jealous and didn't make things partially awkward.

After he landed the TARDIS outside the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay, just next to the _scenic_ entrance to the Torchwood Hub, he descended the spiral staircase until he reached the third level down, where he walked to Bella's bedroom. He knocked and opened her door quietly and stopped and grinned as he found Bella on her bed, fast asleep and snoring softly with her mouth slightly open.

To him, it looked like she had come down stairs and collapsed face first onto her bed. She hadn't bothered getting changed out of her maid uniform, she just lie on the top of the covers.

Still grinning, he walked to her wardrobe and opened it and picked up a spare doona that was up the top of her wardrobe and placed it gently over Bella, making sure she was well covered. She moved slightly and mumbled something that the Doctor couldn't make out before becoming still again.

He sunk into the chair that was over by the wall and just watched her sleeping, feeling fonder, and far more grateful towards her than he'd ever felt before.

* * *

**Next time: After a short pitstop in Cardiff Bay, the Doctor, Bella and Captain Jack find themselves on a spaceship similar to that of Platform One. After discovering that there is a party celebrating Earth music from the 21st century, the three of them eagerly join in the celebrations. But will something sinister bring their enjoyment to a sudden, violent end?**


	48. Ep11 Blood Lust CH1

**Ep11 Blood Lust CH1**

The Doctor stood waiting impatiently in the TARDIS, pacing around the centre control room waiting for Bella to return with the chips that she had gone to get twenty minutes ago. He sighed.

The TARDIS doors opened and Bella walked in grinning.

"Where have you been?" the Doctor asked glaring at her slightly.

Bella looked at him, the grin sliding off her face. She came to a stop as she looked to him feeling slightly concerned.

"Since when does it take twenty minutes to get chips?" he asked her, resisting the urge to tell her how worried he had been. Cardiff afterall had become quite a dangerous place over the years in terms of aliens and things.

"I did get chips!" she said holding up the chips wrapped in white paper. "I just got – uh – kinda commandeered."

The TARDIS doors opened again and Captain Jack strolled in smiling, stopping beside Bella.

"I should have known you'd somehow manage to run into _him_." The Doctor said darkly, feeling suddenly moody, like he always did when Jack appeared out of no where. He would have liked a kind of head's up.

"Hey," Jack laughed, holding his hands up in defeat. "Don't blame me! She ran into Gwen and Rhys and Gwen practically dragged her down to Torchwood to see Ianto and me."

"You've corrupted them all!" the Doctor said, making Bella laugh.

"I think Ianto and Gwen were like that _before_ meeting Jack, Doctor!" Bella said, still laughing and her eyes twinkling.

"Haha, you got that right! You should have seen what Gwen did on her very first day at Torchwood! Caught the rest of us off guard, that's for sure! Mind you – it was a pretty good first encounter with aliens, if you catch my drift!"

Bella bit her lip in an attempt to hide her smile as the Doctor shook his head slightly. "I suppose you are coming with us then?" he asked Jack who smiled in response. "Alright then, hang on!" he grinned as Bella and Jack moved forward and grabbed the centre consol. "Allons-y!"

"So," Bella said excitedly once the TARDIS had landed the control room now silent (from the klaxon noise at least, the gentle hum of the TARDIS remained still) as she looked to the Doctor. "Where are we?"

"Haven't the foggiest," the Doctor shrugged smiling as he walked to Bella and Jack and took a chip from the bag that was still in Bella's hands. "I put her on random!"

Bella's whole face lit up with excitement. "Really?" she asked.

"Yep!" he grinned at her.

"Wish I could have chosen for once," Jack said as he nudged Bella.

"Why?" she asked seriously. "That defeats the purpose of _random_ doesn't it?"

Jack laughed and they moved to the TARDIS doors, which they opened slightly so they could peer out. There were people dressed in expensive clothes, the women wearing extravagant gowns and the men in tuxedos, walking past, none of them noticing the blue police box that had just appeared out of thin air.

"Mmm," the Doctor said, "Forty-third century humans by the looks of them. Course, none of them are really _pure_ human anymore. Not unless Lady Cassandra is here – which I really hope she isn't…"

"It looks like they are having a party." Jack observed enthusiastically.

"Better get changed then!" the Doctor grinned closing the doors. "Mind," he added as he turned to Jack. "I don't think I have anything to fit your ego." He told him seriously.

"I have to wear a dress again, don't I?" Bella said glumly as she followed the others towards the stairs.

The Doctor and Jack, who were now both wearing a black tux, waited outside the TARDIS for Bella, who was taking quite a long time to get ready.

"So I heard you were human for a few months," Jack said conversationally, looking at the Doctor to see how he reacted. "Again,"

The Doctor looked to him.

"Martha told me about the first time," Jack said smiling. "And Bella told me a little about this time. She wouldn't tell me everything though. One point in the story she went bright red and jumped to the bit where she got hit over the head. Now why would she of done that?"

The Doctor suddenly felt uncomfortable and opened the TARDIS door. "Come on, Bella!" He said making Jack smile smugly.

"Do you promise not to laugh?" Bella called out from one of the lower levels in the TARDIS. "Cause it was this or that gown I had to wear when we were in Scotland last…"

"Of course we aren't going to laugh, why would we do that?" he asked, shaking his head slightly. He heard footsteps behind the doors so he took a step back to give her room to get out.

She opened the door and emerged slowly and tentatively from the TARDIS. The first thing the Doctor noticed was that her normally tied up hair was down, soft and curly. The second thing was that she wore the small silver chain around her neck that the Doctor knew held her TARDIS key which was hidden by the thing he noticed next – what she was wearing.

It was a chocolate brown strapless cocktail dress with black trimming that came down to just above her knees and on her feet she wore black high heels. The Doctor felt his mouth drop and Jack sniggered slightly.

"Jack, you promised!" Bella said hitting him on the arm.

"Ow! I wasn't laughing at you!" he pleaded while he laughed still and the Doctor had the feeling that he had just been caught out.

"I knew you'd laugh at me." Bella said. "I look ridiculous –"she added tuning around to walk back into the TARDIS.

Jack grabbed her arm quickly to stop her. "I think you look beautiful, Bella." He told her seriously.

Bella froze for a moment, then said, flushing, "I… yeah, you look good too, Jack…"

"Do I not get a mention?" the Doctor asked as they both looked to him.

"Gorgeous!" Jack laughed.

"Absolutely spiffing!" grinned Bella, who put on a posh accent.

The Doctor nodded seriously, then said grinning also, "I thought so too!"

Jack laughed as Bella playfully pushed the Doctor, both of them laughing too, before they set off link-armed (Bella being between them) around the corner where they found a doorway that had a sign reading: _Platform Three welcomes you to Retro Night: Twenty-First Century_. A tall blue man in magenta robes and bright blue eyes greeted them with a warm smile.

"Good evening," he said bowing slightly.

"Hello," Jack said, letting go of Bella's right arm.

"Jack," the Doctor sighed.

"What?" Jack asked hotly, looking back to them as the Doctor pulled his psychic paper out from one of his inside pockets, his right arm still linked with Bella's.

"Hello," the Doctor said smiling. "We are here representing Tardis. We were overjoyed to receive your invitation!"

The blue man took the leather wallet that contained the psychic paper from the Doctor and surveyed it quickly before smiling and handing it back.

"Of course, sir Doctor, come straight through," the man said. "The V.I.P. area is just up the stairs at the back of the ballroom. Have a good evening!" he smiled and bowed to the Doctor, who bowed back politely and the three of them walked (the Doctor and Bella still linked at the arms) through another doorway into a vast ballroom. There was a full orchestra which was currently playing an instrumental version of _You Found Me _by The Fray and about fifty people (different types of aliens blended in amongst them) dancing.


	49. Ep11 Blood Lust CH2

**Ep11 Blood Lust CH2**

"Well, this is certainly different." Bella smiled quietly as she watched everyone dancing.

"Very," the Doctor agreed looking down to her. "Good though isn't it?"

"Yeah," Bella laughed, looking up to him.

He smiled at her. They both deserved a break after everything that had happened with the Family of Pain and they both needed it, although the Doctor thought Bella deserved it more than him as she had spent almost three months keeping his clumsy human invention out of trouble, which he doubted had been easy, because it was him.

"There are so many – uh, for want of a better word – aliens here!" Bella observed as Jack laughed, he too looking around at everyone near them. "I mean amongst humans – peacefully amongst humans. You don't generally see that much do you, not in our time at least and generally not so much where we've been."

"My ears must deceive me!" Gasped the man in front of them as he turned around to gaze at Bella wide-eyed, "Surely that must have been the voice of an angel!"

The Doctor, Bella and Jack all stared at the unnaturally good looking man before them feeling somewhat astounded. Bella seemed literally speechless as she stared slightly opened mouthed at him.

"Sorry, I should introduce myself," he smiled breathtakingly, his grey eyes never straying from Bella's face. "I am Harvey Williams," he told them, taking Bella's right hand (the one that was not around the Doctor's arm still) and kissed it gently.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed slightly as he felt jealousy building in his stomach.

"Uh – I'm Bella," she told him somewhat uncertainly. "This is the Doctor –"

"Hello," the Doctor said, watching Harvey closely.

"- and this is Captain Jack." She finished, pulling her hand away from Harvey's and resting it on the Doctor's right forearm.

"Fascinating," Harvey said his eyes falling on Bella's hand on the Doctor's arm, an odd expression flashing across his face briefly that the Doctor did not miss.

"So, do you enjoy the twenty-first century?"

"Oh, yeah," Bella said lightly, obviously glad of the change of subject, "We have a soft spot for it."

"Are you historians?" he asked.

"You could say that, I guess." Bella shrugged, smiling as the Doctor and Jack laughed slightly.

"Did I miss something?" Harvey asked seemingly frustrated.

"Oh no," Jack said, still laughing. "We've been told that we know so much about that century that we could have come from there!"

The Doctor and Bella laughed loudly as Harvey looked to Jack for the first time and his eyes narrowed before looking back to Bella as the orchestra stopped and an old jukebox started playing _Holiday_ by Dizzee Rascal.

"May I be so bold as to ask for a dance, Bella?" Harvey asked, holding out his hand.

The Doctor felt Bella's hold on his right arm tighten.

"Uh," she said hesitantly. She didn't normally dance at all. She was going to tell him this but suddenly – and unexpectedly – she agreed. "Sure…"

She reluctantly let go of the Doctor's safe arm and took hold of Harvey's outstretched, cool hand and allowed herself to be led onto the dance floor.

The Doctor watched them leave, Bella looking back to him, bitting her lip nervously. He felt his jealousy heighten more, which obviously showed on his face.

"Young, handsome, close to her own age," Jack deducted, watching Harvey place his hands around Bella. "As good looking as you are, Doctor, you may have some competition on your hands."

The Doctor clenched his jaw together tightly as Jack walked away from him over to a group of nearby women that the Doctor didn't find overly attractive. He sighed. He was just over-protective of Bella that was all, he tried to tell himself. He could never feel for anyone as he had done for Rose, but she was gone, stuck in a parallel universe with the human version of him.

Even as he told himself that he couldn't feel for anyone more than Rose he knew it was pointless, He had already fallen for Bella and there was nothing he could do about it. Jack had picked up on it, even if he didn't say anything (which he was very thankful about) and even his feelings for her had filtered through the Chameleon Arch into John Smith's memories. He had been able to tell her how he felt. He just wished that _he_ could.

Bella danced with the pale, bronze-haired man and looked up into his pale grey eyes as he looked down into her bright blue ones. He was about 6'1" (the same height as the Doctor) and wore a black velvet suit. She felt as though she could look no where other than into his unique eyes no matter how hard she tried not too. She felt slightly awkward as he held her close with his strong arms; she wasn't used to it at all, especially with someone she hardly knew.

"So," Harvey said calmly, leading her effortlessly around the dance floor. Bella didn't think the song was appropriate for slow dancing at all, but she didn't try and fight him which made her wonder why she didn't. She would much prefer to dance with the Doctor. "Where are you from?"

"Here and there," Bella said, unsure of what to say. "I'm never in one spot for too long. I travel all over with the Doctor, see."

"Are you with him?" Harvey asked quietly.

"With him?" she repeated, not following him.

"Romantically?" he said charmingly.

Bella's face immediately flushed. "No, it's nothing like that." She said quickly. "He is my best friend, I owe him so much."

"Hmm," he said and Bella didn't like the scepticism in his voice. "Where are you from originally? Where were you born?"

Bella panicked. What should she tell him? There was something about him that she didn't trust and she didn't feel like it was a good idea to tell him that she was part Nealonian.

"Uh, I was originally from Earth. My mother died in childbirth and I don't know where she was from." Bella lied.

"Your father?" he pressed.

Alarmed as to why he was so interested, she said "Died when I was five."

"How terrible," he said, but something told Bella that he wasn't as sincere as he would have liked her to believe. "Where is your Doctor from?"

Alarm bells began to ring in her head now. She managed to tear her eyes away from Harvey's and looked to her right, searching for the Doctor. She saw Jack surrounded by a bunch of women and laughing loudly, a drink in his hand, but she didn't see the Doctor with him.

"Uh," she said as Harvey pulled her closer to him, making her look back at him once again. "I can never remember what it's called…"

Harvey stared into her eyes, his face quite close to hers. She looked back at him, an unexplainable fear forming. She needed to get away from him but she couldn't move; it was like she was frozen into place.

"Excuse me?" said the Doctor, tapping Harvey's shoulder politely. "May I?"

Bella felt a sudden wave of relief rush over every inch of her as Harvey looked to the Doctor and released her.

"Of course, Doctor," Harvey said bowing slightly. "It was such a pleasure, Bella."

Bella attempted to smile as he handed her to the Doctor, who quickly took her hand and placed his around the small of her back.

"Shall we?" the Doctor smiled as Bella watched Harvey walk away into the crowd moodily. He looked to her and noted her expression; she seemed slightly edgy, which had been the main (but not the only) reason that he had come over to her aid. "Are you okay?" he asked her as the song changed to _On A Night Like This_ by Kylie Minogue.

"Yeah," Bella said relaxing a bit as the Doctor began leading her around the dance floor. "He was just a bit weird that's all…"

The Doctor laughed. "Most aliens are to you humans! I mean, some would say that I was a bit odd."

"I can't see why!" Bella said in mock-confusion. "I mean someone who can change their face, can travel in time and owns a spaceship that is bigger on the inside can hardly be considered odd!"

The Doctor laughed again and looked down to Bella, who was looking up to him smiling. It was then that both of them realised how close they were to each other. Their faces were inches away from each other and the Doctor could see every detail of Bella's beautiful blue eyes and the memory of John Smith's study resurfaced in his mind.

* * *

**_Author's note: Thoughts on the chapter and the story so far?_**


	50. Ep11 Blood Lust CH3

**Ep11 Blood Lust CH3**

Harvey smiled slightly as he saw the Doctor and Bella inches away from each other, apparently oblivious to the fact that they had now stopped dancing. _Not romantically together, huh_, he thought to himself and he looked across to _Captain_ Jack who was obviously thinking along the same lines as him.

The blue man that had welcomed the Doctor, Bella and Jack now stood silently beside Harvey apparently waiting for orders.

"Oh, it seems such a shame to ruin the moment." Harvey said sarcastically as the blue man laughed softly. "Martin, I think it is time to go into stage one."

The blue man named Martin smiled and disappeared in a blink of an eye and Harvey turned back to watch the Doctor and Bella, who had not moved since the last time he had glanced at them.

"This should be easier than I thought." Harvey smiled.

The Doctor's and Bella's heartbeats had increased as they moved slightly closer to one another, neither of them thinking about what was happening. The Doctor leant in a bit closure so that their lips came so close to touching –

**BANG!**

The Doctor and Bella broke apart and looked up to the stage where the jukebox that had been playing Kylie had blown up. Several people screamed and Martin ran up to the stage.

"Keep calm people." He said loudly. "Everything is completely under control, I believe that was just a power surge, they happen sometimes. Unfortunately that was the only music machine on Platform Three."

The crowd groaned angrily.

"We came here to listen to retro music!" Yelled one of the men at the back before the rest of the crowd yelled in agreement.

The Doctor spoke up, moving forward slightly. "I think I can fix it, I'm a bit of a genius when it comes to this sort of thing! It shouldn't take that long."

"Oh, fantastic!" said Martin clapping happily, ushering the Doctor up onto the stage which left Bella standing all alone.

"What are we going to do until he's finished?" yelled a woman near Bella. "I don't want to listen to orchestral versions of songs!"

"Oh, I think I have a solution to that." Harvey said softly as everyone turned to look at him. "My good friend Bella is a historian, specialising in the twenty-first century. I am sure she is familiar with numerous songs from that era."

Bella froze, feeling everyone looking to her direction. "I – uh – music was my weak point. I really can't –"

"Oh, please Bella," Harvey said solemnly, "Only while your friend fixes the music box."

Bella bit her lip, beginning to panic. "It won't take him that long though –"

"Come on, Bella!" yelled Jack who was on the opposite side of the room with women hanging of him. "Do it, do it, do it!"

Bella scowled at him furiously as everyone followed his lead and chanted along with him so she had no choice but to move shakily up to the stage, making a mental note as she did so to kill Jack after this.

"What do you need?" Martin said as she climbed the small set of stairs up onto the stage.

"Uh," she said, her voice shaking with nerves. "An acoustic guitar," she said, pointing to one that was leaning against the wall, which he went and got for her.

"I didn't know you could play," the Doctor whispered and her cheeks reddened.

"It's one I've known for ages… I can't remember anything else at the present time... I was only playing it a week or so ago in one of my walks to the TARDIS! I am so going to kill Jack!"

The Doctor smiled slightly as he watched Bella walk in front of the orchestra to where Martin had placed a microphone. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before beginning to play the guitar and then she sung:

"_For a time I thought my faith it must be hiding,_

_Searching through the skies, hoping to find a way,_

_A way to get me through the day,_

_Dunno where I belong, is this where I should stay?_

"_You lift me up when I was falling,_

_You're my friend when I was calling,_

_Now I'm on top of the world, top of the whole wide world,_

_Yeah, you've always been believing,_

_Gave my life a whole new meaning,_

_Now I'm on top of the world, top of the whole wide world, __yeah."_

The Doctor looked up from the now fixed jukebox that he had soniced and stared at Bella, who was now doing a guitar solo, in awe. He had no idea that she could play guitar, or sing for that matter. He looked down to the crowd below him (they were all now slow dancing with each other) and found Jack, smiling up at Bella and just leaning against a wall.

Jack watched Bella play the guitar, smiling. She had a very good voice and a talent. As he listened closely to the lyrics she was singing (he himself was not familiar with the song itself), he had no doubt in his mind who the song was about for her.

"_There's a strength in me it seems I had forgotten,_

_Now I realise today that I'm starting to dream again,_

_Again, it was a matter of when,_

_I guess we all lose our way now and then,_

"_You lift me up when I was falling,_

_You're my friend when I was calling,_

_And now I'm on top of the world,_

_Top of the whole wide world."_

Bella finished her song and the ballroom applauded before the Doctor turned on the jukebox (which now played _Three_ by Britney Spears). Bella turned and walked to him, smiling (obviously glad that it was over) and putting the guitar down on the chair beside them.

"Thanks," she said, nodding to the jukebox.

"That was brilliant," the Doctor said, impressed.

Harvey stood on the other side of the ballroom and watched as Bella's cheeks reddened as she laughed and shrugged off the Doctor's comment. _It was nearly time for stage two – where it all started to become fun_, he smiled to himself. As _Captain_ Jack approached the Doctor and Bella, he turned and went to find Martin.

"Stage two," he said smiling evilly.

* * *

_**Author's note: The song I used in this chapter was Only Hope by Mandy Moore. I didn't write it, I'm not that clever, I just thought it worked well with Bella's feelings at the time. I hope you didn't find it to corney (I think some people use the term Mary Sue?)! We are getting much closer to the series final now... Haha, I need to finish typing up the next episode! Crickey!**_


	51. Ep11 Blood Lust CH4

**Ep11 Blood Lust CH4**

"Bella," Jack said standing below the Doctor and Bella and looking up to them grinning. "That was great!"

Bella looked down to him glaring. "Yeah, thanks for that, Jack!"

"What?" Jack asked innocently, but Bella didn't get the chance to answer him.

Everything suddenly went dark and the whole ship gave a sudden dramatic lurch, which knocked everyone off their feet, the Doctor grabbing Bella as they fell to try and protect her from the fall. He sat up and looked around as the orange safety lights came on, the music no longer playing.

"The engine is shut off," Bella said, sitting up now also, listening to the sudden silence that had replaced the drone of the space stations massive engines, "So much for a relaxing, no chasing bad guy trip." She added dully looking at the Doctor, whose eyes were now alight with excitement.

They both stood up and the Doctor walked to the edge of the stage and jumped down, landing beside Jack.

"We need to find the engine room," the Doctor told Bella and Jack. "I think this and the power surge to the jukebox are connected somehow." He added as Bella walked to the edge of the stage and he raised his arms to help Bella down. She knelt and put her hands on both his shoulders and he put his hands on her waist before lifting her down. "Come on,"

Harvey watched as the Doctor, Bella and Jack subtly left the ballroom, unmistakable excitement lining every inch of the Doctor's face.

He smiled. They had all fallen into the trap he had created for them. He laughed as he clicked his fingers, all the people in the ballroom disappearing instantly. Of course, they weren't real people, but the Doctor and his faithful companions didn't need to know that.

Martin, the only other person in the room now, looked on faithfully at his master, awaiting orders as Harvey made his way to the stairs that led to the V.I.P. area.

"We are heading into stage three now, Martin." Harvey said somewhat lazily. "Remember the plan. There can be no mistakes. Wait until the girl is separated from the two males, especially the Time Lord. He is rather over-protective of her. You can do whatever you like to them – just remember the girl is mine!"

The Doctor, Bella and Jack managed to find the engine room in record time; they just went down a set of stairs and came across it. The Doctor felt quite disappointed.

"Well, it must be a really small ship," Bella said at the Doctor's obvious disappointment.

"You got that right!" Jack said peering out one of the small windows.

The Doctor didn't say anything as he was hunched over the control panel before he hit it in frustration. "Something isn't right about this, it's too easy. Nothing is wrong with the engines; they've just been switched off. That's it. But there is something else," he said as he got his sonic screwdriver out and pressed one of its buttons and pointed it straight up. "There is another power source upstairs somewhere that is draining a lot of power. It's keeping Platform Three from falling into orbit around Earth and protecting the air supply and the heating."

"I can go and have a look." Bella suggested helpfully.

The Doctor hesitated, not because he didn't trust her, but because he didn't know what they were dealing with, before handing her the beeping sonic device slowly. "Be careful. Just follow that signal, but don't touch anything when you find it!"

Bella took the sonic screwdriver from him and smiled before turning and heading back up the stairs.

The Doctor and Jack both turned back to the control panel, the Doctor frowning.

"There is something else," the Doctor continued, putting on his brainy specs. "In the memory paths of the engine, there is a signal. You know what Jack; I don't think that it was random that we landed here."

"What do you mean?" he asked seriously, wondering how much danger they were in.

But someone new spoke to them out of the shadows, and the Doctor never got the chance to answer Jack.

"Bad move, Doctor," said Martin, the blue man who had greeted them onto the space platform. He was holding some kind of gun up to them. "You just sent away the only thing keeping you alive."

Bella held out the Doctor's sonic screwdriver in front of her as she walked past the TARDIS, down the corridor and back towards the ballroom. Just as she reached the door to the ballroom, she noticed a very large and unusual crack in the wall opposite the main door. Frowning she moved over to examine it.

It almost looked like a crooked smile belonging to the Joker from_ Batman_. She was almost about to reach up and touch it when she shook her head. She didn't have time to worry about odd looking cracks in the wall; she had to find out what was draining Platform Three of all its power.

She looked down to the beeping sonic screwdriver in her right hand before turning around and pushing open the doors and heading into the ballroom, where she came to a surprised stop.

The ballroom was now empty, not one single person remained. Everyone had disappeared. Bella felt confused. She hadn't heard any evacuation alarms, so why had they left? Had that blue man encouraged them to leave for their own safety? _Good thing I'm with the Doctor_, she thought to herself.

Hesitantly she followed the screwdriver's beeping signal across the disserted ballroom; her high heels echoing off the walls as she walked. She walked up the staircase that led to the V.I.P room and opened the door quietly before she walked in.

It was pitch black. She pressed another button on the sonic screwdriver and the end lit up like a torch, showering the room with an eerie blue light. She could now she that on the opposite side of the small room was another control panel with a flashing red light which must have operated some kind of transmat pad or something.

_Great V.I.P. room_, she thought to herself sarcastically.

"I would have never imagined that it would have been so easy to separate you from the Time Lord," Said the unmistakeable voice of Harvey Williams. Bella gasped as she saw him immerge from the shadows beside the control panel. She felt her breathing increase. Something was far from right.

"What do you want?" she ordered wondering why she hadn't turned and ran out. Just like before, something about Harvey was keeping her glued to the spot. "Where have all the people gone?"

"Despite your cool demeanour, Bella, it is your heartbeat that gives you away." He said, smiling charmingly at her. "The people were a simple mirage to lure you in." he clicked his fingers and the small room suddenly filled with people (and multi-coloured aliens) that were chatting cheerfully and laughing. He clicked his fingers once more and they all disappeared. "Off course, at first I invited real beings, like the Lady Cassandra and the Face of Boe, but they turned me down, which was a rather good thing since you brought the _Captain_ along. As for what I want, well I already have her right here."

Bella's heartbeat seemed to double making Harvey chuckle.

"What have you done to the Doctor and Jack?" she ordered fearfully.

"Me? Oh, I haven't done anything to them myself. My servant, Martin, however, I cannot speak for. He could do anything. He can be ever so eager to please me, sometimes he takes things a bit too far. "

Bella turned quickly back to the door and gasped in shock. Harvey was already standing in front of the door, blocking her way out.

"You cannot save your beloved Time Lord now, Bella Lumic!"

* * *

**_Dun dun dunnn!_**


	52. Ep11 Blood Lust CH5

**Ep11 Blood Lust CH5**

The Doctor stared directly down the barrel of the gun that was pointed at him, his arms raised in surrender. It had all been a trap and he had a funny feeling he knew who was behind it all.

"My master will be ever so pleased." Martin continued in a slightly mad voice. "He has the girl now; all that is left to do is to dispose of you, Doctor the interferer! Master will be so proud of me!"

"Who is your master?" the Doctor asked quickly. "And where is Bella?"

Martin smiled.

"I can help you," the Doctor said sincerely.

"I don't need your help!" Martin said insanely. "My master looks after me, more than you look after your _companion_, at least! Oh, we never thought you'd let her go off on her own in a breaking down space station!"

"Where is she?" Jack yelled.

"Don't worry; you'll never see her again!" Martin said before pulling the trigger of his gun.

Jack pushed the Doctor sideways out of harms way so that the old fashioned bullet went through Jack's chest and into the control panel. There was a large explosion and the Doctor dived onto the ground and shielded his head with his arms. The ship gave a lurch then became still. Martin cursed angrily and pointed his gun at the Doctor who was still on the floor in front of the control panel.

"If you miss this shot, Martin," the Doctor said, seeing Jack stand up behind the blue man. "You could blow up this whole ship, killing all of us, including your master." he said, hearing his hearts pounding within his chest.

Martin hesitated then said "I will not miss!"

Jack collided with Martin as he pulled the trigger, the bullet only just missing the Doctor by inches and hit the control panel which caused another explosion twice as big as the last time and the whole ship gave a lurch that suggested that it fell a few metres making the Doctor believe that they had just fallen out of the stationary position it had been and fallen into orbit around the Earth.

Bella had managed to stay upright as the ship lurched the first time, but as the ship gave a much more dramatic lurch the second time, both Bella and Harvey were thrown off their feet. Bella cried out in pain as she slid across the marble floor and hit the corner of the metal control panel with her head.

A loud alarm sounded suddenly and a female's voice said calmly over the loud speakers: "_Damage catastrophic, please proceed to emergency escape pods."_

Bella lifted her right hand to her head and she discovered that she was bleeding as the lady kept repeating herself.

Harvey cursed loudly to himself as he got up and walked over to Bella and knelt over her as she shrunk back away from him. Rage was pulsating from him and he grabbed her right arm and held onto it with such force Bella was sure he would break it.

"It would seem as though my servant has failed!" he said furiously, his eyes now red instead of the pale grey they had been before. "But it doesn't matter. There is no time to keep you in your living state, not while your Doctor will be trying his hardest to find you. I am afraid you will be useless to the one I am working for once I turn you, but surely he knows that while the Doctor is alive he could never get you for himself."

Bella's mind exploded with questions, but her body had completely frozen. While he had been talking, his teeth had suddenly become incredibly sharp and pointy. Bella needn't have seen all the vampire films in her life to know that she had just come into contact with a real vampire. _At least he wasn't sparkling_, she thought to herself, finding it a little ironic that she, _Bella_, had managed to meet a vampire who looked a little bit like Eward Cullen. She had never really liked Edward all that much, she was more of a Jasper supporter.

"This might hurt, just a bit." Harvey said softly and charmingly, leaning in to bite her neck.

She quickly grabbed the sonic screwdriver that was beside her on her left and held it up to his ear.

The Doctor stood up quickly, coughing as he inhaled smoke from the fire coming from the control panel beside him. Alarms were going crazy and the automated safety lady was calmly telling them to abandon ship. He covered his mouth and looked for Jack, who he found lying beside a body that was engulfed by flames.

"C'mon!" the Doctor yelled as the ship gave another sway. "We need to find Bella then get back to the TARDIS!"

Coughing and spluttering, the Doctor and Jack emerged from the engine room covered in soot, their suits ripped and torn and the Doctor had scratches and bruises all over him. They both ran as fast as they could back up the corridor, past the TARDIS and into the empty ballroom where they heard a mighty, unhuman scream of pain.

They both skidded to a stop before Bella burst out of the doors at the top of the marble staircase, looking over her shoulder back into the dark room before descending the stairs as fast as she possibly could.

"Doctor!" she cried as she collided into him forcefully, nearly knocking him over. "I told you he was weird!" she said, clinging onto him.

"Bella?" the Doctor said, alarmed. Bella was shaking severely as she hung onto him for dear life, not daring to let go of him. "Bella, what's wrong?"

There was a crash and they looked up to the V.I.P. room and Bella's hold on the Doctor tightened as she buried her head in his chest.

The Doctor and Jack stood in amazement as a bat, larger than the TARDIS herself emerged from the room that Bella had just been in.

"That's a vamp-"the Doctor started before he was suddenly over come by fear (something that he wasn't entirely used to) and he grabbed Bella and pulled her off him so he could look at her properly.

"Did he hurt you?" he ordered frantically. She shook her head, unable to speak for fear, which was when the Doctor noticed blood trickling down the side of her face. "Bella!" he gasped, putting his right hand up to her face.

"I fell when the ship lurched the second time," Bella said, "I soniced him in the ear before he made me dinner!"

The Doctor sighed in relief as Bella held up his screwdriver.

"Yeah, I don't think he is too happy about that!" Jack said before the massive bat screeched furiously.

"RUN!" the Doctor yelled, grabbing hold of Bella's left hand.

They ran as fast as they possibly could back towards the TARDIS. The ship was almost fully engulfed in flames now, and if they didn't reach the TARDIS soon, they would burn along with the rest of the ship.

As they slid around the corner they saw that the TARDIS was now surrounded by flames. Jack reached her first, turning his own key in the lock and opened the doors and held them open for the Doctor and Bella, who ran in as fast as they could and Jack locked the doors behind him.

"Are we leaving it here?" Jack asked panting as the Doctor ran to the control panel and Bella leant against one of the strong pillars.

The Doctor pulled a lever and the Klaxon fired up, filling the TARDIS with its tooth-drilling, eardrum shattering siren sound that relaxed Bella more than anything else in the world. She was now safe. Sighing, she slid down the pillar and onto the floor.

The Doctor and Jack exchanged a quick worried glance before the Doctor walked over to her and knelt down in front of her.

"Nothing good ever happens when I wear this suit." He told her lightly.

Bella smiled at him weakly. "It's not the suit."

Jack laughed.

The Doctor smiled and placed his right hand on her face, trying to examine her head.

"It's healed now," she told him quietly. "It's just dried blood." She paused and looked down to the sonic screwdriver in her hands. "If I didn't have this I would be dead right now… or worse…"

"Worse?" Jack asked curiously.

"He said," she started, keeping her eyes cast down. "He said he was working for someone, someone who wanted me… just like the Slitheen and the Judoon." She bit her lip nervously. "He was going to change me – make me like him…" she shuddered.

"Bella, he can't hurt you now," the Doctor promised quietly and she looked up. "And no one will take you from me, okay?"

She nodded before hugging him tightly. The Doctor wrapped his arms around her and held her, exchanging another worried glance with Jack. Whatever had happened before they had reached her had obviously scared her more than anything else had done in her life, and that worried him quite a lot.

Jack cleared his throat and they both looked up to him, neither of them letting go of the other.

"So, I noticed you danced with the Doctor for a while, Bella, "Jack said smiling innocently as Bella's faced flushed and they both let go of each other awkwardly, avoiding each others gaze. Jack laughed at this before continuing. "So I was thinking, since you didn't dance with me then, you could dance with me now."

Bella smiled as the Doctor stood up and offered his hand to her, which she took gratefully and gave the Doctor his sonic screwdriver back. As the Doctor walked over to his computer screen, Bella walked to Jack, who took her hand and twirled her in a circle before adopting the traditional dancing position.

The Doctor pressed a button on the keyboard and the song _Everything_ by Michael Buble began playing through the TARDIS.

"The celebrations never stop!" the Doctor smiled as Jack and Bella laughed and began dancing and singing along to the music.

The whole ship was beginning to disintegrate as Harvey calmed down enough to turn back into his human appearance. He stood and watched the blue police box disappear and there was nothing he could do; he had failed.

Hissing slightly he turned and ran at an amazing speed to the room about the dance floor which contained the transmat beam. He pushed buttons, pulled levers and moved into the corner and waited while the transmat powered up.

He gathered that Martin had been killed, not that he really cared; it was his fault that the plan had failed, all he had to do was to keep the Time Lord busy and/or kill him so that he, Harvey, could kidnap the silly half-human girl and take her to the man that needed her for some weird experiment or something along those lines, anyway.

A white light suddenly formed all around him and the dark interior of the burning space platform disappeared, a stone room with a roaring fire replaced it.

He stepped out of the transmat and strode to the door, his strength nearly ripping it off its hinges, and out into the stone corridor. He walked through the castle's hallway, past people who gave him startled and terrified looks and headed towards the warehouse that was situated behind the castle.

Without knocking, he entered a room that was all metal, with computer screens on the walls and computer stations either side of him. At the opposite end of the room a greying man in his mid-to-late fifties stood with his back to him.

"Master," Harvey said, kneeling down to bow respectfully. He knew that his master was not going to be impressed that he, like so many others before him, had failed at retrieving the girl.

"You had better have her, Williams," his master said coldly.

Harvey didn't look up and he felt fear (something that he had never experienced before) forming in his stomach. "I am sorry, master, but the Time Lord is very overprotective of her, and she is the same of him. Even when she stumbled into me in the dark, she fought so very hard to get back to his side."

"You disappoint me," he said emotionlessly. "I told you how important it was that you brought her back to me, she is the thing I need most for my plan to succeed –"

"Can you not use someone else, master?" Harvey asked, trying desperately to redeem himself. This was not a man to cross. "You must realise that while the Time Lord is alive, he will do everything he can to protect her."

His master turned around and smiled down at him. "There is one thing that he cannot do though. It is a fool proof plan." He told him confidently. "Although your incompetence has delayed me greatly, it will not cause any major problems to my plans. The Doctor and Bella will land on this planet very soon, for the Doctor cannot resist the urge to show off, and when they do, I shall be ready. I shall get Bella for what I need her for and destroy the pompous Time Lord at the same time."

Harvey breathed a large (and silent to his master's human ears) sigh of relief and stood up. "Thank you for your forgiveness, master."

His master raised his eyebrows. "Forgiveness?" he repeated with a sinister sneer. "Oh no, Williams, I do not forgive those who fail a very simple mission." He clicked his fingers and Harvey heard loud, metal footsteps behind him.

Before he could turn and run, four strong, metal hands grabbed both his arms and held him into place.

"Now, how what the way to kill a vampire?" his master asked, his brown eyes gleaming. "How could I possibly forget," he chuckled before turning back around and giving the terrifying creatures their orders. "Stab him in the heart, then rip him apart limb from limb and then burn him."

"No," Harvey gasped as the monsters began to pull him backwards out the door. "You can't do that!" he yelled.

"Actually," his master said, looking up at the screens in front of him, "I'm not the one doing it."

"NOOO!" yelled Harvey, before the metal hands reached up to his head and quickly twisted it so that a loud crack was heard.

* * *

**Next time: After visiting one of the seven moons of Pyro Shika, the Doctor, Bella and Jack all wake up in some strange factory that is filled with many impossible things with the TARDIS no where to be found. How can the Doctor work things out if he can't remember how they had gotten to this frightening place, if his mind can't see the obvious?**


	53. Ep12 The Dream Rock CH1

**_Author's note: So, just to let everyone know, I have added another full scene to the last chapter of the previous episode at the very end. It gives a bit more of an explination to what happened to Harvey once the TARDIS abandoned him on the burning space platform and some hints for what is to come in the series final, so please check it out!_**

**_Now, to this episode. Originally not part of the series, kind of like a side story (the Doctor Who novels) so it lacks hints for the series finale but I couldn't not share it with you guys. It's a bit of a different one for me because it's all a bit psychological. I got the idea from a dream I had in which I was running around with the Doctor and Jack and everyone else featured in this episode (don't you just love when you have Doctor Who related dreams!). Anyway, I expanded on that dream and this is the end product, I hope you enjoy!_**

**Ep12 The Dream Rock CH1**

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The Doctor walked into the TARDIS and Bella and Jack entered behind him, laughing loudly. He walked up to the consol, looking down to what was in his hands; an odd black, circular-shaped rock that seemed to give off some sort of green light. He frowned slightly. It didn't seem like your average moon rock that had been given to them by an old man on the moon of Lamarr. He put the surprisingly heavy rock down on the seat behind him before looking to Bella and Jack.

They were both roaring with laughter and Jack struggled to finish the joke that he was meant to be telling her. The Doctor smiled crookedly, leaning against the consol with his arms folded, just watching them. Despite that Jack was wrong in every possible way, the Doctor couldn't help but to enjoy his company in the TARDIS, and as the TARDIS hummed happily, he gathered that she felt the same; it had just taken her a while to get used to him after he became a fixed point in time.

"And then," Jack finally managed to say, "I cornered him in the bathroom at this local pub and he turned around and –"he paused, trying his hardest not to laugh while Bella looked to him expectantly, grinning widely. "-he had five heads!"

They roared with laughter and gripped onto each other so that they didn't fall over. The Doctor watched them, feeling as though he had missed one hell of a joke. Eventually, their laughter slowed and they both looked to the Doctor, still grinning.

He smiled happily back at them. "So," he said as he turned back to the consol. "I was thinking we could check out some of the pyramids."

"Do Time Lords not need rest?" Bella asked him with a fondness in her voice.

"Well, we do," the Doctor said, turning back to her and running a hand through his hair, "but I just thought you might like to meet some pharaohs." He shrugged indifferently.

Her eyes lit up with excitement, making him grin cheekily at her.

"I would love to Doctor," she started, obviously torn between sleep and meeting pharaohs, "but I am pretty tired after all the running we've been doing –"

"What running?" he asked seriously, frowning.

"Well, it all started with the vampire," Jack laughed.

"Then we were chased by an over-friendly polar bear," Bella added, her grin widening.

"That was an Artair, not a polar bear." The Doctor corrected her.

"After that you landed us is the middle of an angry herd of hippos," Jack said, a bit more seriously now.

"And then we had to chase all the camels you set free in the Samson desert because you didn't think they ought to have been tied up!" Bella finished.

"In my defence," the Doctor said innocently, "I did think that they'd been abandoned there with no food or water."

Bella gave him a flash of her breath-taking smile before heading towards the stairs.

"Hungry?" she asked and Jack instantly followed.

"Ooh, what are you making?" he asked and Bella looked to him and said, "who said anything about me cooking, Jack?"

The Doctor smiled and shook his head slightly. It was going to be a quiet night in the TARDIS apparently. He glanced back down to the moon rock that originated from Lamarr, one of the seven moons of Pyro Shika. He picked it up and took it with him, heading after the others; he hadn't quite finished examining it just yet…

After they had eaten, the three of them went and sat in the library. Jack played chess by himself, Bella sat on one of the deep red lounges reading _The Children of Hurin_ and the Doctor sat beside her, reading _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_ for what had to be the eight hundred and twenty-seventh time. By the time the Doctor had reached chapter thirty-five, which was only about half an hour later (he normally read much faster, but he was reading purposely slow to make sure he missed nothing), he glanced to Bella beside him, who he'd been watching out of the corner of his eye for the last three chapters.

She sat with her legs up on the chair and her book open while she watched Jack intelligently. The Doctor finally looked up to him too and smiled.

He was sitting at the chess board opposite them frowning as he tried to figure out his next move. He grumbled angrily to himself before moving the black queen five spaces to the left. Bella quietly put her book down, trying not to disturb the Doctor (obviously unaware that he was watching her fondly) and walked over to Jack.

"May I?" she asked quietly and he looked up to her, nodding. She took a seat opposite him and gazed at the chess board briefly before taking the one white knight left and moved it. "Checkmate," she said smiling slightly.

The Doctor lowered _The Deathly Hallows_ and grinned as Jack sighed and leant back in his chair.

"Remind me not to play with you again." He said seriously.

"It's not my fault that you forgot the knight was there!" she laughed. "And besides, I had fresh eyes and you were trying too hard to be impartial."

Jack smiled, despite himself. "Re-match tomorrow then!"

"You're on!" she said lightly as they shook hands before they both stood up.

"Well, you had better get a good night's sleep then, because I'm not going to go easy on you!" Jack said as he walked towards the door. "See you in the morning," he added, waving over his shoulder.

Smiling, Bella looked to the Doctor.

"You've done it now," he told her, resisting the urge to smile.

She laughed before a serious expression covered her face. "I bet he's gone to booby trap my room!" she said, making the Doctor laugh as she ran after Jack. "Goodnight!" she added hastily.

"Goodnight, Bella," he said warmly before she bounded out the door.

He shook his head and put his book down (even though he'd read it so many times before, he still thought chapter thirty-five was a rubbish place to stop reading) and picked up the moon rock that had come from Lamarr, the moon that controlled the tides on Pyro Shika. He sighed and leant back on the lounge and looked down to it, its greenish glow making him feel uneasy and… sleepy?

As the Doctor's eyes closed slowly, Jack and Bella (Jack still walking towards his room and Bella only just closing her door) both collapsed and fell to the hard floor, all three of them falling into a deep sleep.


	54. Ep12 The Dream Rock CH2

**Ep12 The Rock of Dreams CH2**

The Doctor woke suddenly and his eyes flew open before he groaned and shut them again due to the sudden brightness. He rubbed his eyes as he stretched out which, he discovered, was quite painful to do. He rolled onto his right side and opened his eyes more slowly this time.

He sat up immediately once that he saw that he wasn't in the TARDIS like he'd originally thought. This in turn, raised the very important questions of where was he and where was the TARDIS?

As he got to his feet, he decided to answer the first question first. He was standing in a massive dinning hall with four wooden tables that shone in the candle light (the candles themselves suspended in mid air above the tables). On the walls were a school crest with a lion, a serpent, a badger and an eagle, four different coloured banners (red, green, yellow and blue) and roaring fire lamps with stone owls beneath them. It all seemed very familiar to the Doctor and it took him a few moments for it to come to him; it was the Great Hall from the _Harry Potter_ novels, just as he had imagined it. Discovering this however, raised yet another important question; how in Rassilon's name did he get here?

He looked around, not able to remember anything apart from reading a book (he had no idea which one) in front of the roaring fire in the TARDIS in the library. He had said goodnight to – who had it been? It would have had to have been Rose…

_No_, said a voice in his head,_ it hadn't been Rose_. _Rose was stuck in a parallel universe with the human version of him, he was travelling with… Susan_?

He sat down on one of the wooden benches, his back to the table, rubbing his forehead and feeling frustrated with himself. _It hadn't been Susan either. Maybe it had been Ace or maybe even Tegan_? He shook his head. _Perhaps it was Turlough and Sarah Jane? No_, he thought,_ not them, but two others; a man and a young lady. They were smart, good looking, very loyal and they both adored each other, but not in a romantic way, they had just become the best of friends. The man was some kind of captain… Captain John... no, Captain Jack!_ He thought triumphantly. _But who was the girl? _They'd been through a lot together, that much he knew. So much pain, yet so much laughter. They'd fought Slitheen and Judoon, met the ancient Amazonians and she'd befriended the Ood. She was half alien but also the first and last of her kind –

"Bella," he said aloud, standing up and looking around before freezing when someone spoke his name.

"Doctor,"

He didn't need to turn around to the doorway to see who it was who had spoken. He knew exactly who it was, recognised her voice immediately, but it was completely impossible.

"Rose," he whispered, turning to see the beautiful Rose Tyler standing in the doorway, smiling fondly at him.

Bella stirred and slowly opened her eyes to discover that she was face first on the cold, stone ground. Groaning, she pushed herself up so that she could take in the appearance for wherever it was that she was which she found to be a courtyard of sorts. It looked as though she was in somewhere that had come straight from one of Tolkien's works, like a courtyard in Minas Tirith or Gondolin. The only major difference, of course, would have been the giant black and white chess pieces that surrounded her.

There came a groan from behind her and she turned to find Jack sprawled on the ground.

"Jack," she said as she helped him to sit up, "Are you okay?"

Jack opened his eyes and looked to her nodding slightly. "Yeah, I'm alright." He said as he rubbed his head. "What did we get up to last night? We didn't find any nine hundred year old Time Lord scotch did we?"

"I don't know," Bella frowned, "I can't remember…"

Jack looked to her sharply. "Neither can I," he admitted, "I don't recall coming here either…"

Bella looked around and found two doors, one either side of them. "Where's the Doctor?" she gasped suddenly. They looked at each other before scrambling to their feet, neither of them liking the fact that they couldn't remember how they had gotten there and the fact that the Doctor wasn't with them.

They both headed towards the door to their right before they came to a hesitant stop after hearing heavy footsteps on the other side of the door. Just after they had exchanged a quick glance, the door burst opened and three full-sized Slitheen walked in cackling, holding up rather large guns.

Bella and Jack yelled out in surprise which quickly turned to fear. Jack grabbed Bella and pushed her in the direction of the other door, trying to keep in between her and the Slitheen as they ran; there was no way that he was going to let them get anywhere near her after what happened on Nealon. They had almost reached the other door when it too burst open, two more Slitheen jumping out at them.

Bella screamed before Jack grabbed her waist to pull her to a sliding stop as the five Slitheen closed in around them.

"Give me your hand!" Jack said urgently to Bella after realising that his gun was missing from his hip.

"This is hardly the time for hand holding, Jack!" she snapped, trying to figure out a way to get out of this terrifying situation.

"Give me your hand!" he yelled, grabbing her left hand and placing it on his left wrist and pushing down on it. They disappeared in an instant, leaving the Slitheen behind who were now screeching furiously.

Rose Tyler walked towards the Doctor, still smiling, wondering why he was staring at her like he was. It was a different look for him, as if seeing her caused him physical pain.

"Where are we?" she asked him as she walked. "And how did we get here, I don't remember anything?"

The Doctor didn't answer her, he just continued to watch her approach him, his mouth hanging open slightly. _This couldn't be happening_, he thought to himself.

Rose wondered why he wasn't answering her, as he normally would answer at speeds close to one hundred miles an hour and with a massive grin on his face. Yet as she stopped in front of him she knew something was very wrong.

"Doctor, what is it?" she asked with a worried expression. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

He looked down to her, horrified. "How are you even here?" he asked very quietly. "You're in a parallel universe."

"We're both in a parallel universe," Rose laughed, feeling relieved now. "You had me worried for a minute there! Who put you up to that one, mum or dad?" she asked, leaning in to kiss him just like she always did now.

He pulled away and took a few steps backwards and he saw colour rise in Rose's cheeks.

"Doctor?" she asked hotly as she felt heat rising in her cheeks from his rejection. _What was wrong with him today_, she wondered.

"Rose," he said, his voice cracking ever-so-slightly. "You're in the wrong universe. I'm not him – I'm not the human one…"

Rose looked at him frowning. "What?" she said. He was serious – dead serious, she could tell that he wasn't mucking around.

"I have two hearts." He told her, his eyes full of emotion.

"But," Rose started, feeling upset. She had never thought she would see him again, the _real_ him. She looked away guiltily. She shouldn't have thought that, she was with the real Doctor in the parallel universe, he just had a bit more human in him (and occasionally would sound like Donna) and he was still real, he was still hers and she still loved him, he just wasn't the original. "This is impossible, how did I get back here? I don't even remember getting here or deciding to come here!"

The Doctor walked forward and placed his hands on her arms to reassure her. "I don't know how I got here either; let alone where my friends are." He said, hoping that that would comfort her.

"How long has it been?" she asked him quietly.

"Almost a year," he answered her softly.

Rose nodded. "Me too,"

They smiled awkwardly at each other before they heard a scream from outside the tall, double doors. The Doctor ran forward and Rose followed him, just like old times, but he couldn't help but think that it should have been Bella following him, not Rose. As he pushed the doors open and he ran into an entrance hall that looked as though it could have come straight from a _Harry Potter_ novel too, he collided with a short, black haired woman, who exclaimed when she looked up to him.

"Doctor,"

"Martha!" he said happily as they hugged tightly for a moment, before she pulled away from him, her expression urgent now.

"Doctor, there are Judoon here!" Martha Jones said quickly before glancing to Rose beside the Doctor. "You stayed with him." she said happily.

Rose shook her head. "I stayed with his human version in my parallel universe." She explained. "He needed me," she added, casting the Doctor a look as if willing him to say that he needed her more.

"Oh," Martha said, feeling slightly taken aback. "How did you get here then? Is he here too, the human Doctor?"

"We don't even know where here is Martha," the Doctor said, interrupting their catch up and hoping that his human self wasn't here. That would just get confusing. "You said you saw Judoon?"

"Oh yeah," Martha said, her vice becoming serious once more. "There are four of them, but they aren't like the ones we met before. Their uniforms are different."

The Doctor frowned, thinking of the ones that had kidnapped Bella, and if they were the same, he had to make sure that she was safe.

"What are Judoon?" Rose asked curiously.

The Doctor turned to her and saw the four Judoon walking towards them, their big, fierce looking guns pointed directly at them.

"They're the Judoon, RUN!" he yelled.

He pushed open the metal doors opposite them, his two former companions following him through. He slammed the doors shut then soniced them to lock them. When he turned back around, his mouth dropped.

The door had led them into what seemed to be an endless metal factory that went on for as far as his alien eyes could see. In contrast to the warm, light halls of Hogwarts, this warehouse was cold and dark. Everything around them was metal: metal floors, metal walls and a metal roof. The landing that the three of them were standing on was corrugated iron, similar to the floor in the consol room (and everywhere else) in the TARDIS, except it was black. You could even see through the tiny little holes to the level below.

"This is not right…" the Doctor said slowly.


	55. Ep12 The Dream Rock Ch3

**Ep12 The Rock of Dreams CH3**

Jack and Bella felt their feet touch the floor and they let go of each other before toppling over, groaning in pain.

"The Doctor was right," Bella grumbled.

"About what?" asked Jack.

"He really does have the sports car."

"Ha ha," Jack said sarcastically as he sat up and looked to Bella, who was still lying on the metal floor, holding her head.

"I thought the Doctor did something to stop your Vortex Manipulator from working?" she said.

"He did," Jack admitted quietly making Bella look up to him sharply.

"Something's not right here, Jack." Bella said while she stood up. She looked around them and found that they were now in some kind of huge metal warehouse. She leant over the railing beside her and saw the metal floor several meters below them.

"Come on," Jack said as he stood up. "Let's try and find the Doctor."

Bella nodded and fell into step with Jack, both of them keeping an eye out for any sign of more Slitheen.

"Why didn't you shoot them?" Bella asked him as they walked, curious as to why Jack would have not shot them, seeing as the Doctor was nowhere to be seen.

"My gun's gone," he told her, making her frown. "Can you remember anything yet?"

"Not really," she said slowly. "I'm pretty sure we were in the TARDIS and we'd just said goodnight to the Doctor…"

"That's all I've got too…"

"It's weird," she continued. "Have you noticed that all the lighting in this place has a green tinge to it?"

Jack stopped and looked around him. "I hadn't noticed, no."

Bella continued walking before stopping suddenly and pointing up ahead of her. "Jack, it's those fat aliens!"

Jack quickly caught up to her and looked to where she was pointing. He saw the tiny, baby aliens that the Doctor and Donna had cleared up over a year ago. How could he remember that, but not what the Doctor, Bella and him had been up to just before ending up here?

"They're called Adipose," Jack told her. "The Doctor and Donna were involved."

Bella nodded. "Of course they were," she smiled. "They aren't dangerous are they?"

"No,"

"So, so far we've come across two aliens that the Doctor has thwarted. Coincidence?" she proposed.

"I dunno," Jack said. "But I doubt it. We have no recollection of ever getting here and there are two aliens that have absolutely nothing to do with each other in the same place at the same time."

Bella sighed before looking to the tiny Adipose. They were quite cute once you got past the fact that they had been made from human fat and she couldn't help but to like them. It hadn't been their fault; they hadn't chosen to be made like they had been. She realised that a few of them were waving to her so she lifted her right hand and waved back, before others came to join them, these new ones dragging large black, black guns, very similar to the Slitheens weapons.

"Jack," she gasped.

He looked to her before looking to the Adipose, who were all gathering around the Slitheens guns and pointing towards them. They waved then pulled the triggers and Jack quickly grabbed hold of Bella to try and protect her, but the rays hit the bars that were holding the walkway up, causing it to drop. Jack and Bella began to slide down off the edge towards the hard metal ground below them. They both managed to grab hold of the edge and they clung on for dear life, but they knew it wouldn't be long before the Adipose managed to shoot the other two bars keeping them in place.

The Doctor walked down a set of metal stairs moodily, his mind trying to work at a million miles an hour as Rose and Martha silently followed behind him.

"Where's Donna?" Martha asked, thinking that it was weird that Donna wasn't with him. _Maybe they had been separated_, she thought, _which would explain the Doctor's mood_.

The Doctor tried to ignore the painful stab in his stomach that he experienced every time Donna's name was mentioned. "At home, I suppose."

"What?" gasped Rose and Martha at the same time, both of them thinking that had to be impossible. Donna was meant to travel with the Doctor for the rest of her life.

"What happened?" Rose asked him. "Donna is part Time Lord now; she is probably the only one who can truly keep up with you!"

"No she isn't." the Doctor said quietly, thinking of Bella. "There had never been a metacrisis with a human before, and for good reason." He explained quietly as he continued to walk. "The part of me that Donna had absorbed from my hand – the Time Lord knowledge – it was killing her. A human just can't handle it. I had to erase her memory – of me, everything that we had ever done together and everyone she had saved before taking her home, otherwise she would have died."

Rose and Martha exchanged concerned glances.

"Doctor, we're so sorry." Rose said gently.

He nodded and turned left at the next junction of rows of metal cabinets, coming to an abrupt stop and making Rose and Martha run into him.

"Ood!" exclaimed Rose happily, peering round the Doctor's side.

Four Ood dressed in their plain black suits with their round translator balls in their hands stood staring at them.

"They're a bit… odd…" Martha smiled.

"They have red eye," the Doctor said darkly, before turning to Rose and Martha and said "time to run again, I'm afraid!"

The three of them ran in the opposite direction, not stopping until the Doctor did about five minutes later.

"Maybe we should get back to the TARDIS," Rose suggested, leaning against the wall closest to her while Martha leant on her knees, panting.

"I don't know where she is," the Doctor told them as he looked around, trying to get his bearings, "and even if I did, I wouldn't be going anywhere near her until I found Bella and Jack."

"Who and Jack?" asked Martha. _Who was Bella_, she thought to herself, _had he already gotten over Donna?_

The Doctor opened his mouth to explain, but there was a sudden explosion, making him look round to his left. Down the other end of the warehouse (which wasn't really that far from them), he saw two familiar people on one of the suspended walkways being shot at by tiny, white blobs of fat.

"Adipose?" he said, feeling confused before he realised, as the two people clung to the walkway that was about to give way, that the Adipose were aiming at the metal bar keeping the walkway upright. There came another loud crash before the walkway fell, Bella and Jack falling towards the ground amongst the metal walkway.

"NO!" he yelled, instantly running towards all the noise, Rose and Martha quickly following.


	56. Ep12 The Dream Rock CH4

**Aut_hor's note: Okay, so we are about mid way throught the story here and I thought I would give you a head's up that this chapter is pretty long! It's a bit slower in pace than the rest of the story has been, so it's a good little break. Also, there is a part involving the TARDIS key and I wasn't sure if something like that had ever been spoken about in the Series (Classic or new) and if it has please let me know and I will change it accordingly. I hope you're enjoying it :D_**

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**Ep12 The Rock of Dreams CH4**

"Bella," Jack coughed as he sat up, pushing a piece of corrugated iron off himself.

"Sometimes I hate Newton," she answered gruffly, sitting up and rubbing her head, making Jack give a relieved laugh.

"I hate him all the time," declared an unknown voice from behind Bella.

Bella watched Jack look past her, looking astounded and even a little scared.

"Impossible," he gasped.

Bella frowned and turned around, her mouth falling open slightly. The person who had spoken was Donna Noble and she was walking towards them smiling.

"Okay, so I don't really hate him, it's just that I never liked taking physics at high school, and I needed someone to blame, which as it turns out wasn't Newton's fault that he was a genius, so I can't really blame him, can I?" Donna finished her Doctor-ish ramble, oblivious to both their faces.

"Donna," Jack said, standing up.

"Hello handsome," she grinned, "well, don't just stand there, introductions please!"

He looked down to Bella looking speechless, and Bella jumped to her feet, her eyes still fixed firmly on Donna.

"I'm Donna Noble," she said, holding her hand out to Bella, who slowly took it. _It seemed that Captain Jack had lost his voice_, Donna thought with a smirk.

"Bella," Bella said slowly, wondering how on Earth this could be happening. She was shaking hands with Donna Noble – or rather – _the_ Doctor Donna!

"So, where's the Doctor?" Donna asked lightly, turning to Jack.

"We don't know," he told her with a slight frown. Jack had thought the Doctor had wiped Donna's mind of all her memories, how could she possibly remember him and not be keeling over?

"Bella!" came a familiar shout from somewhere around them before a light brown blur collided with Bella.

"Doctor!" she gasped as he picked her up and hugged her very tightly.

Jack looked across to Donna, expecting her to faint or something, but she was merely smiling as she watched the scene unfold before her.

"Doctor, we have a bit of a problem," Bella said, squirming in the Doctor's arms to try and get him to let her go.

"I know," he told her. "We've already met them."

"Met them?" repeated Jack. "And who's _we_?"

"Yeah, the Judoon and the Ood." The Doctor said in answer, still holding onto Bella tightly.

"Doctor, put me down!" Bella said breathlessly as his arms began to limit the amount of oxygen reaching her lungs.

He obeyed and gently placed her back on the hard floor and let her go, wondering why she was so on edge. "What's wrong?"

"Well, apart from being chased by five Slitheen and gunned down by Adipose," she said shortly, wondering how he hadn't seen Donna yet, "Donna is here too."

The Doctor's playful smile slid from his face before he looked around to find his former companion and best friend (that wasn't former, she still was one of his best friends, she just couldn't remember that) smiling at him in her brown leather jacket and her dark blue jeans.

"Donna," he gasped feeling horrified.

"Relax, space man," she grinned, "I'm not going to die!"

There was movement in the direction that the Doctor had come from so Bella looked around the stunned Time Lord and saw Rose Tyler and Martha Jones coming to a halt a little way away from them, their mouths dropping at the sight of Donna too.

"I guess that answers the 'we' question, Jack." Bella whispered to Jack.

"This just keeps getting weirder," Jack whispered back to her and she nodded in agreement.

They both looked back to the Doctor, who was still staring at Donna with wide eyes and his mouth open and closing like a fish.

"Well, this doesn't happen often," Donna laughed at him, "the Doctor, speechless?"

Bella glanced back to Rose and Martha and saw a group of familiar, tall people with bright green eyes approaching them. "LOOK OUT!" she cried, pointing to Rose and Martha, who both turned around and saw the group of Pucu raise their guns.

As Bella moved past the Doctor and grabbed Rose and Martha's arms, the Doctor yelled "RUN!" and grabbed Donna's hand, leading the way away from the tall, brutal aliens.

They ran for what felt like an hour before, exhausted, they found a small metal room with only one door and no windows to collapse in. They all remained silent while they each got their breath back and they tried to gather their thoughts.

Rose lay on the floor beside Donna, who sat with her legs folded beisde the Doctor, who stood silently beside the door and leant against the wall. Jack sat leaning against the wall opposite the Doctor with his legs stretched out. Bella was also lying down, but her head was rested on Jack's leg and Martha sat at the end of Bella's legs, facing her and Jack.

"Hang on a minute," Rose said, sitting up suddenly and looking to Bella, who turned her head to look at her, "I've seen you before!"

"Have you?" Bella asked, not noticing when the Doctor looked sharply across to Rose. She frowned, trying to remember when she possibly could have seen Rose, and then she remembered. "Oh yeah – you just appeared out of absolutely no where!"

The Doctor looked sharply to Bella now as Rose laughed slightly.

"Teleport," she said grinning,"sort of," she added, wondering how she could have explained the dimension jump.

"Why did you teleport to Tunley in the middle of the Dalek invasion?" Bella asked curiously. "Weren't you meant to be trying to find Donna?"

"I was," Rose said, wondering how Bella had known what she was doing, "the Dimension cannon was programmed to lock onto anyone who had a strong connection to the Doctor _and_ the TARDIS. I have always thought that the Cannon had over jumped, but I guess it was you that it had locked onto."

Bella frowned, and the Doctor's deepened.

"But it can't have locked onto me," Bella said slowly.

"Why not?" asked Rose.

"I hadn't met him yet," she told her quietly, glancing up to the Doctor, who was staring at her.

"You must have," Rose said dismissively, "it wouldn't have locked onto you otherwise."

"Trust me," she answered, "we hadn't met yet. The Doctor isn't the sort of person you'd forget."

Rose shrugged and nodded, thinking that she had a point.

"Okay, so you've met before." Martha said feeling frustrated that no one was acting very concerned about their current situation. "But what is going on _here_?"

"I don't know Martha," the Doctor said quietly. He felt like he knew nothing at this point in time, and his head was pounding rather painfully. It was like he couldn't make any sense, couldn't gather any facts. What was wrong with him?

"How about we all go through what we do know?" Bella suggested calmly as Martha was about to press the Doctor further.

"And that would be?" Martha asked, looking down to her.

Bella sat up slowly, putting a hand to her throbbing head as she did so. Glancing down to her right arm she found cuts and bruises from the fall, which she found very alarming, considering they should have healed by now.

"Well," she started, choosing to ignore her injuries, hoping she was just being paranoid, "we all don't remember how we got here, nor whatever it was that we were doing before we woke up here."

"I could have told you that," Martha said moodily.

"Well, feel free to contribute to the conversation then," Jack said, somewhat defensively, knowing all to well that Martha would probably be feeling some kind of jealousy towards Bella at the present time, and he personally didn't think that Bella deserved it. Don't get him wrong, he loved Martha, he really did, and he thought she was brilliant, but he thought that she needed to move on from the fact that the Doctor had never loved her, especially since she was engaged to another man, a doctor none the less.

Bella looked to Jack and frowned. "We also know that two of us shouldn't even be here; it's literally impossible."

"I.e. Rose is meant to be stuck in a parallel universe," Donna added helpfully with a smile, "and I'm not meant to be able to remember the Doctor _or_ anyone associated with him."

"Yeah," Bella said, drawing out the word and looking at Donna as if she were on her death bed.

"Relax, I'm fine!" Donna smiled.

"Right, sorry," Bella said as she shook her head slightly. "Have I missed anything?"

"The Judoon," said Martha.

"The Ood," Rose told her.

"Aw, are there Ood here?" Bella asked happily.

"They're infected with Red Eye," the Doctor told her darkly and she looked up to him, obviously worried about him.

"Jack and I came across some Slitheen and the Adipose, and we all just met the Pucu." Bella said dully, not liking where this was all heading.

"There are also some Sontarans walking about, acting like they own the place." Donna told them glumly.

"Great, that's all we need!" Bella said sarcastically.

"How do you know about the Sontarans?" Martha asked suddenly. "That was a classified U.N.I.T. operation!"

"I told her," the Doctor said, thinking along the same lines as Jack had been. He hoped that a comment like that from him would be enough to make Martha leave Bella alone.

"Really?" asked Rose and Martha at the same time and he didn't even bother responding; there were more important matters at hand than how much he'd told Bella about his past adventures.

Bella was thinking along the same lines. "Has anyone come across all these aliens before?" she asked, almost afraid of the answer.

Everyone shook their heads, everyone except the Doctor. He just looked to Bella with a haunted expression on his face. She bit her lip as they looked at each other. She had been thinking that the Doctor might have been the common thing here, and that scared her even more.

"Has anyone else noticed the green lighting that's in every room we're in?" She asked randomly, as she noticed it in that room too. Everyone looked to her frowning except for Jack (whom she'd already told) and Donna, who looked instead up to the Doctor.

"This one is _brilliant_!" she gushed.

"Oh, thanks Donna," Rose grinned.

"Aw, you know what I mean," Donna said, looking to Bella, who looked startled. "Look at her, mind working at a hundred miles an hour trying to work all this out, and she's already knocked the bull on the head –"

"Shh!" the Doctor hissed suddenly, moving over to the wall that Jack was leaning and pressing his ear up against it. Bella quickly stood beside him.

"What is it?" she whispered.

Martha looked up, expecting the Doctor to sigh, roll his eyes and start to explain everything at a hundred miles an hour like he used to with her, but was very surprised when he said softly "listen."

She watched Bella place her left ear to the wall as her eyes were locked onto his and they widened in fear.

"No," she gasped, pushing off the wall.

"What did you hear?" Jack asked, alarmed by Bella's voice. He quickly stood up.

"Another alien," The Doctor said, turning to the door. "We need to get back to the TARDIS.

"But what is it, Doctor?" Jack pressed.

"The Daleks." He said angrily, storming out the door, Bella springing out lightly after him while Rose, Martha and Donna got to their feet, feeling scared about this new development.

"Doctor," Bella said, almost running to catch up with him, "about the TARDIS –"

"You don't think she's here." The Doctor said quietly, an edge to his voice that didn't belong there.

"Yeah, but how did you know I was thinking that?"

"Because I don't think she's here either." He told her as they walked. "I would have been able to feel her, but I can't. That, and my TARDIS key is missing, and I think that may be a link as to how we are all here."

"But there are heaps of people who have a TARDIS key, right?" Bella said, her mind buzzing. "I mean, what about Sarah Jane and Tegan and Ace and –"

"They aren't here." He said stiffly.

"I've still got my key."

The Doctor stopped walking and turned back to her. She was holding out her TARDIS key that was on the silver chain around her neck.

"It's cold," she told him, "freezing in fact. Its how I knew the TARDIS wasn't here because it's always cold when she isn't where I am, like on Nealon and when you left me at Torchwood to try and – well, it was cold then too."

He stepped closer to her and she put the key in his outstretched hand, having to lean forward slightly because the chain was still around her neck.

"You're the only person I've travelled with, other than another Time Lord, to notice that Bella." He said very softly, looking straight into her blue eyes. "And you are completely right."

"We'll find her, Doctor." She told him certainly.

"Bella, I can't remember anything! I don't know how we got here, I don't know where we are –"

"Doctor, we'll work it out," she told him gently, "I promise." She added, taking one of his hands in hers.

He gave her a small smile and hugged her briefly before starting to walk again. A moment later she realised that everyone was now walking towards them, which would have been the Doctor's reason to get away; he didn't want anyone else to see that he was incredibly worried.

As Jack, Rose and Martha walked past Bella; Donna linked arms with her and motioned for her to start walking.

"I'm really glad he found you." Donna told Bella quietly. "I don't think he should travel alone and he seems to have really opened up to you."

"We're pretty close, yeah," Bella admitted, shrugging slightly watching the back of the Doctor's head as they walked.

"I know," Donna smiled. "What's in his head is in mine."

"He misses you Donna," Bella told her, "He talks about your adventures all the time. He hates himself for what he had to do to save you."

Donna looked away painfully, not daring to think about how much pain the Doctor would have gone through to save her. "I miss him too, so, so much. I mean, my conscious mind doesn't miss him, because it doesn't remember him, but my subconscious – well, that's a whole other story. I've cried without realising I've been crying a couple of times. Of course, Gramps knows why and it upsets him, bless…"

Bella looked to her, feeling sorry for her and yet so confused by her at the same time.

"Aw, listen to that mind of yours buzzing away, trying to figure me out!" she laughed. "You'll be the one to work all this mess out, trust me."

"But I don't even understand how you can even be here," Bella said eventually, looking away from her. "None of this can really be happening!" she added helplessly.

Donna grinned down at her. "When is someone's subconscious mind most active?"

"When we're asleep," Bella answered indifferently, "Its how we dream –"she suddenly stopped walking and looked up to Donna, her eyes wide. "Are we all dreaming?"

"I can see why he likes you so much!" Donna said proudly.

Bella pulled her arm out from Donna's and began to pace backwards and forwards in front of her, trying to gather her thoughts. If this were a dream that could possibly explain the fact that she still wasn't healing. But if it were her dream, why wouldn't she be healing, that was part of who she was.

She stopped pacing and looked up to Donna. "Is this my dream or someone else's?" she asked frowning, and Donna didn't answer, so she continued to think out loud. "And I reckon it all has something to do with the green lighting – I don't know how, it's just a gut feeling. So, I don't think it's my dream, and because I have thoughts and everything, maybe we are all dreaming the same dream. I mean, it's not impossible, just highly unlikely, isn't it? But if we're all having the same dream, it would all have to be centred around one particular person – well, that would have to be the Doctor because he's the only one who's come across all these aliens _and_ all of us."

She paused and her frown deepened. "But does that mean we are in his dream and are therefore not actually real?"

Donna looked down to her, smiling slightly. "Not how I would have reached the same conclusion, but most of that was right, I would say."

"How could know if I'm right or not?" Bella asked, her head starting to hurt from all the confusion. "I mean, we are in the same boat aren't we?"

"The Doctor protected me from ever remembering him," she said sadly, "and for that I can see everything here for what it really is."

Bella stared at her, confusion now starting to make her head spin. "So if you can see the same things that I am seeing because the Doctor did a really good job at protecting you, what is letting me see them and not the Doctor? He told me he can't remember anything and he's just not himself –"

"The TARDIS is protecting your mind," Donna said interrupting her, "I'm not really sure how she's doing it or why, but she's giving you enough resistance to work things out. The Doctor can't figure things out because all this was created through him. He needs you now more than ever, and without you, we'll all be stuck here. He can't work it out on his own this time."

Bella tried to take all this in, which she was finding it increasingly hard to do. "Why can't you tell him all this?" she asked. She was beginning to panic now. "You seem to have all the answers; wouldn't it be easier if all this came from you?"

"He'll forget what I say as soon as I say it. Whatever brought us here wants to keep us here." Donna said. "Because the TARDIS – the _Doctor's_ TARDIS – has made the link with you, everything you say will count."

Bella bit her lip and put both her hands on her head, her heartbeat racing. "But that means that I have to be the one to work it all out," she said, overwhelmed with what Donna was telling her what she had to do.

"And you will, trust me." Donna said before walking away, leaving Bella alone and confused.


	57. Ep12 The Dream Rock CH5

**Ep12 The Dream Rock CH5**

The Doctor walked silently, everyone following him slowly. He still hadn't worked what was going on, how they had all gotten to this place or where the place was. All he did know was that they were on their own, the TARDIS wasn't there.

"So," Rose said conversationally as she followed the Doctor, thinking that he looked older than he had when she'd last seen him, especially his gorgeous brown eyes, "Who is Bella then?"

"What do you mean 'who's Bella?'" he asked moodily, not turning around.

"Where did you meet?" Rose asked. "How long have you been travelling together? Is she nice? Where have you taken her?"

"Earth," he said simply, thinking that there were more pressing matters at hand.

Rose was about to press him further, but they all heard Bella scream, followed very soon after by some kind of explosion. They all spun round to see Bella leap round the corner and dived onto the hard metal ground, giving a gasp of pain.

The Doctor pushed past everyone else and knelt down beside her, where she grabbed his arms to pull herself up onto her knees.

"The Daleks have found us," she gasped, looking up to him and grabbing onto his arms again as pain gripped her. The blast from the Dalek's ray gun had done more damage than she originally thought. "They're coming!"

He pulled her to her feet, telling everyone to run, which they did. Jack waited for the Doctor and Bella to catch up to grab Bella's hand that the Doctor wasn't holding due to the fact that he could see that she was struggling to run. They all ran about ten yards before they were closed in by the five Slitheen, the three renegade Judoon, the four infected Ood, and the large group of tiny Adipose, the three Sontarans, the three Pucu and the four bronze Daleks.

Bella collapsed to the ground in between the Doctor and Jack in utter exhaustion. Martha rushed to her and started to examine her and Bella just sat staring at her hands and arms. She still wasn't healing and she thought that if she still weren't healing, then she couldn't possibly be real in this dream, she concluded to herself. She glanced up to Donna, who was looking to the Doctor, thinking that she needed to hurry up and figure this out; they were running out of time.

"What do you want?" the Doctor ordered furiously, looking at every alien individually.

"They don't know Doctor," Bella said as she stood back up, waving at Martha to tell her to stop fussing over her. She moved to the Doctor's side, wondering how, if she were just part of the Doctor's dream she could feel so much pain.

"That's ridiculous!" Jack said, moving forward slightly too.

"It's not, they're just going to resort to what they do best," Donna said, everyone except the Doctor and Bella looking to her. "They haven't got a clue why they're here either, they just know that they have to stop you from figuring anything out!"

"What do you want?" the Doctor repeated as if he hadn't heard Donna speak.

Bella looked to Donna with a deeply apologetic look on her face and Donna looked painfully back to her. Bella bit her lip, nodded once to Donna and started to look around for a way out.

"You will all be exterminated!" said one of the brass coloured Dalek's moving forward slightly.

"Tell me about the green lights!" Bella ordered and the Dalek turned its eye piece to her and yelled "EXTERMINATE!"

Before Bella could do anything, Jack collided with her, taking the ray gun blast in his back. They hit the ground and Bella laid completely still, Jack lying on top of her still as Rose, Martha and Donna gasped and moved closer together.

Bella slowly pushed Jack off her as she sat up, bitting her lip so that she wouldn't let out a sob. She gently lowered him onto the cold, metal floor and fought back tears. She knew that Jack wasn't going to wake up. Not this time.

She leant over him, looking at his attractive face. Was he really dead? Were they really dreaming? If they were, why couldn't she wake herself up? Was it her dream or the Doctor's? And if it was the Doctor's dream, how could she be thinking and making her own choices and feeling pain. Even in her own dreams, she didn't feel as she did now. The explosion cause by the Daleks had actually hurt her, and supposedly you can't feel anything in dreams.

She looked up to the Daleks, who were looking down to her, waiting for her next move, like someone playing chess. She brushed her hair out of her eyes, feeling deep cuts and gashes on her forehead.

"They're stuck here too," Bella said out loud, glancing round to Donna who nodded sadly, yet encouragingly. "Every single one of us is stuck here and we don't remember getting here."

Bella turned now to the Doctor. "Doctor, how long would you say it's been since Jack was shot?"

He frowned and looked down to her. "Five minutes, why?"

"And is he awake yet?" she pressed, noting as she did so that Donna looked down to the floor painfully.

"No," he answered, bewildered.

"Is that normal?" she asked, a slight quiver in her voice.

"Bella, what –"Martha began but Donna stopped her. "Let him answer."

"The Doctor's frowned deepened and his mind swam. _What was going on?_ "No," he said slowly.

Bella nodded and looked down.

"Oh my God, he's dead!" Rose gasped as she stared horrified at Jack's lifeless body, "But that's impossible!"

"Exactly," Bella said bluntly, finally letting go of Jack and standing up, looking directly at the Doctor. "This whole place is filled with the impossibles. How could Jack's Vortex Manipulator work after you yourself, Doctor, disabled it? How come Jack suddenly _doesn't_ have his gun, when he doesn't go anywhere without it? How come Jack Harkness, the man from the fifty-first century can suddenly die after the amazing Rose Tyler brought him back _and_ after you, Rose and Martha have all met him in the future?"

"He really has told you a lot," Martha said quietly in awe, realising how different her relationship with the Doctor was.

"How can Donna Noble," Bella continued fearfully, "the part human, part Time Lord Metacrisis genius possible be here in the same room with all of us and still be alive? Why hasn't her mind burnt up like you know it would? How can Rose be here in this universe without tearing a massive hole in the fabric of reality? How in God's name can the Sontarans be in the same room as you and the Daleks without waging some kind of war?"

She paused and moved closer to him. She was now struggling to keep her voice steady because she needed to stay strong for the Doctor. "And how is it that you can't see something so wrong and obvious that is staring you straight in the face?" she said painfully, standing mere inches away from him now.

The Doctor looked down to her, his eyes wide and his hearts pounding within his chest. Everything she had just said poured into his head and he wondered why he hadn't seen these things, why he hadn't added two and two together, but he didn't understand her last comment; _she_ was staring him in the face.

"Bella?" he whispered, feeling so confused.

She looked down. "You still can't see it," she said quietly.

The Doctor saw tears fall down her soft cheeks and he put his right hand under her chin, making her look up to him, her stomach dropping.

"I'm not healing, Doctor."

He stared at her in horror. It was like as soon as she had said it, he could suddenly see that she was an absolute mess. Cuts and bruises all over her face, neck, arms and hands.

"Why can't I see something unless you tell me?" the Doctor asked her, feeling sick. Everything in this place was so wrong.

"Donna said that the TARDIS has made some kind of protective link with my mind, she's protecting me somehow." She told him gently. "And Donna can see everything here because _you've_ protected her so well."

He glanced to Donna, who nodded as if to back up what Bella was telling him. He looked back down to Bella, whose eyes were sparkling with tears. He felt so confused.

"Because of the protection that the TARDIS is giving me, I am able to see the things that you and everyone else is missing."

"But why didn't I notice that you weren't healing?" he asked her, feeling horrified with himself. "How could I not notice? You were nearly blown up by Daleks for Rassilon's sake!"

She quickly took his hands in hers as he got more and more frustrated with himself. "Doctor, this isn't your fault, I promise." She said emotionally, looking him directly in the eye. "But I am sorry, so, so, so sorry, Doctor because I don't we're real. I don't think any of us are real except for you."

"What?" he whispered completely astounded as to how she could possibly think such a thing. "Of course you're –"

"Doctor, please listen," she said softly, placing her right hand on his left cheek, something she had never done before, which stunned him into silence. "I don't think I have much time to explain, and I don't know if they'll let me finish, but I need to try." She explained quickly. "We can't be real because it's all impossible. Rose is in a parallel universe, Martha is on Earth working for U.N.I.T. and being brilliant, Donna can never remember you or what you sacrificed to save her life, Jack can't die, no matter what we throw at him and I… well, it takes a lot to get rid of me too and if I'm not healing then I mustn't be –"

"Don't say it." He whispered.

Her lip trembled. "This all has to be a dream – _your_ dream." She continued quietly. "And I think that you're the only one who can stop it." She gave him a small smile and lowered her hand and her gaze. "We always rely on you too much, Doctor." She gave a small laugh before looking back up to him. "This isn't a natural dream that much I know for certain. It's been brought on by something, something that had a green light."

She glanced nervously at the aliens surrounding them raised and readied their weapons.

"Now, I'm guessing that the further this conversation goes, the more chance I have at being shot, so –"she grabbed the Doctor's arms to stop him from interrupting her, her voice increasing in urgency "- you need to listen to what I have to say."

He looked into her beautiful eyes that were now wide with fear and concern, wondering how on Gallifrey that she wasn't real, but nodded to her anyway. She had to be real, he just knew it.

"I remember we went travelling. You, me and Jack, went to some planet's moon, but I can't really remember which one it was…" she said quietly, Rose, Martha and Donna all leaning in to try and listen. "I remember we were given something by an old man, which I can't remember either, but I _do_ know that when Jack and I said goodnight to you, whatever it was, was on the floor beside you in the library, remember?"

The Doctor frowned in concentration. "You and Jack had said goodnight to me." He said slowly. "We'd been reading – well, you and I had been reading, Jack had been versing himself in chess and he was losing."

Bella smiled, her eyes lighting up. _How could it not really be her_, he said to himself, as her smile warmed both his hearts.

"Go on," she said encouragingly.

"He ended up giving up when you walked over to him and won the game in a single move, so he said that he was going to go to bed. You followed shortly after because you thought he might try and booby trap your room." He told her, making her smile at the memory. "Once you left, I put the book down and… I picked up something…"

"It was round," Bella said, now frowning in concentration, trying to help the Doctor in any way she possibly could. "And it looked like…"

"A meteorite – no, a round rock!" the Doctor exclaimed, grinning down at Bella.

"That is enough!" the Slitheen all cried out.

The Doctor made to look at them, but Bella put her right hand on his cheek again to stop him before she glanced upwards, her eyes widening in some kind of recognition.

"And it glowed," she whispered suddenly, "the black, football-shaped moon rock glowed."

"You must be silenced," said one of the Ood as it moved forward holding its round translator ball out in front of him.

Bella ignored the Ood and lowered her hand, placing it on the Doctor's chest, before reaching inside his overcoat and finding one of the deep pockets. "It glowed green," she said, pulling out the sonic screwdriver and placing it in his left hand, a slight smile on her face.

"You will cease all communications!" one of the Daleks ordered, making Bella grin. _She'd worked it out_, she thought proudly.

"The moon rock from Lamarr, one of the seven moons of Pyro Shika that was given to us by the little old rock seller." Bella told him, a new confidence in her voice as she grinned up to him. "Don't worry, Doctor, you'll understand exactly what you have to do and what wavelength you need to set the sonic on once you look up –"

"Bella!" yelled Donna suddenly and Bella looked round to her left and gasped before looking back to the Doctor, her triumphant grin gone. "Doctor, whatever happens, you must, _must_, look up and see the giant, glowing moon rock!"

He gaped at her before she glanced back to her left, then looked back up to him, her face now panic stricken.

"LOOK UP!" she yelled in desperation as she forcefully pushed him backwards, knocking him off his feet.

His eyes closed as he hit the hard ground and slid across the floor slightly. He heard the sound of a laser gun going off, Rose and Martha crying out in alarm and he opened his eyes, seeing what Bella had been talking about mere moments ago, everything suddenly making sense.

He sat bolt upright, still holding his sonic screwdriver in his left hand. His hearts sank as he found one of the Sontarans smiling, his gun still raised and pointing at Bella, who lay motionless on the ground, her eyes open and unblinking.

Donna covered her mouth so no one could hear her sob, Martha stood with silent tears falling down her face and Rose moved forward to take the Doctor's right hand once he'd stood up.

"I'm so sorry, Doctor," she told him emotionally, tears forming in her eyes now too.

He clenched his jaw shut, glaring at the Sontaran with hatred and rage emanating from him. He didn't believe that this was a dream in which Bella and Jack hadn't existed, because they had. They had existed as much as he did and Bella had solved it.

"That was the biggest mistake of your life," the Doctor said dangerously to the Sontaran that had murdered one of his best friends, letting go of Rose's hand and moving forward slightly. "And very, _very_ pointless."

"Sontar-ha!" it said smugly, enraging the Doctor more than he already was.

"It was pointless because Bella had already alerted me to the thing that brought us all here and now I know what I need to do." He said furiously. "Oh and by the way, Bella mightn't have thought that she was real, that she was just a figment of my imagination, but I know that she was far from that. She was _so_ alive!"

He lifted his sonic screwdriver and aimed it above his head at the glowing moon rock that was so much bigger than it could possibly be in real life, and soniced it, just as the Sontarans, the Daleks, the Judoon, the Slitheen and the Pucu all fired their weapons.

Rose, Martha and Donna all cried out in fear, the three of them running forward and grabbing hold of the Doctor as he continued to sonic the moon rock. There was a sudden explosion above their heads from the moon rock, followed by a blinding flash of green light…


	58. Ep12 The Dream Rock CH6

**Ep12 The Rock of Dreams CH6**

The Doctor sat bolt upright on the red couch, throwing the round moon rock halfway across the room. He was breathing heavily and he wiped his sweaty hair out of his eyes and looked around.

He was in the library in the TARDIS, the fire beside him glowing faintly in the darkness of the room. He gave a small sigh of relief and sat back, thinking everything through. He looked down to the smoking rock, frowning deeply. That had been the weirdest (and he meant _weirdest_) dream he had ever had, a weird dream that actually had him scared. On that thought, he decided that it would be a good idea to go and check on Bella and Jack –

The library door suddenly burst open and Jack strode in, still in his normal clothes making the Doctor jump.

"Blimey, Jack!" the Doctor exclaimed as Jack walked over to him.

"I just had the weirdest dream," he declared before the door burst open again and Bella ran in.

"Doctor, I just dreamt –"

"Hey," Jack said, turning to her and holding up his hands to stop her, "age before beauty!"

Bella looked to him frowning. "You had a weird dream too?" she asked him.

"No," Jack said, "I had a weirder dream than you did!"

"Try me," the Doctor said, hoping to put an end to their squabbling.

"So we all had a weird dream then?" Bella asked, perplexed.

"How did yours start?" Jack asked her curiously.

"With the Doctor, all alone in what looked like Hogwarts," she said quietly, glancing down to the _Harry Potter_ novel that was beside the Doctor on the couch, "then Rose walked through the doors and after that it cut to you and me, Jack, just like a film would."

"You were both in a court yard of white stone, surrounded by larger-than-life chess pieces." The Doctor said, picking up from where Bella had stopped, glancing over to the chess board. It obviously had some relevance that aspects of what they were all doing just prior to falling asleep had become a part of their dream. "You were ambushed by five Slitheen and Jack's vortex manipulator got you both out."

"Then the dream cut back to you and Rose, Doctor, and you came across Martha Jones," Jack said, "you had a quick catch up before you were chased by renegade Judoon."

Bella sunk down to the couch beside the Doctor. "I was right," she gasped.

"It would seem so," the Doctor said slowly, looking down to the still smoking moon rock once more.

"But then I was wrong," she said, looking to him. "In the dream I told you that none of us were real, except for you, but I had my own thoughts, and so did Jack. Does that mean that Rose, Martha and Donna had the dream as well?"

"I doubt it," the Doctor sighed, leaning back on the couch again. "I think the only reason that you two were able to think consciously about what was going on was because you both touched it when we had first been given it. The others were only there because the moon rock conjured them out of my memories: they were acting just like I remembered them."

"But what is the moon rock exactly?" Jack asked as he and Bella looked down to it.

"Basically, it's an old meteorite that had fallen on Lamarr centuries ago, a rock full of potential energy." The Doctor explained. "That was the green glow it had before I destroyed it, all the potential energy. It activates by getting someone to hold it when falling asleep so it can feast on the energy that the dream creates. Had I been killed in the dream, and frankly, with all the Daleks and Sontarans there, I am very surprised that I wasn't, I'm guessing that all three of us would have died in reality, so thank you Bella for saving our lives." He smiled.

Bella frowned, still deep in thought. "But why did the TARDIS protect me and not you?" she asked the Doctor.

"The connection you created with the TARDIS back when you saved my life and got us back to Torchwood would be behind it." He told her gently. "It's the same reason why we ended coming back to Nealon five years later instead of instead of five minutes; the TARDIS was protecting you. She couldn't protect me because I was at the heart of everything, so she felt that you were the next best thing, in which case you most certainly were!"

Bella smiled slightly.

"Feel special," he told her grinning, "the TARDIS doesn't go back on just anyone's personal timeline!"

"Is it safe now?" Jack asked, nodding to the black rock.

"Oh yes," the Doctor said confidently, before adding in an off-hand kind of way "Although, I might throw it into a supernova just in case…"

"A supernova," Bella repeated, not sure if the Doctor was joking or not.

"Mmm," the Doctor nodded seriously, "it's the best place for it… and TARDIS instruction manuals."

Bella and Jack laughed as they shook their heads ever-so-slightly, before following the Doctor out of the library.

"Bella did you really meet Rose?" the Doctor asked as he carried the moon rock up the corridors.

"Yeah," Bella said, "Sort of. She just appeared out of no where, looked at me for a moment then disappeared."

The Doctor frowned at her. "That is the second thing that you've come across that you shouldn't have; Harriet Jones' subwave message and Rose Tyler trying to find Donna and me."

"What do you think it means?" she asked him, feeling slightly worried.

"No idea," he admitted, looking down to her, "Maybe the TARDIS _really_ likes you and has sent messages back to you, I dunno?" he said, tugging on his earlobe and shrugging. He really didn't have a clue as to what had caused these overlaps, but he had a slightly ominous feeling that they may find out sometime in the not too distant future.

When they reached the consol room, the Doctor and Jack stood in the doorway watching the moon rock float into the supernova and Bella stopped by the control panel, placing her hands gently on the edge.

"Thank you," she whispered quietly as she looked up to the Time Rotor, feeling incredibly grateful to the TARDIS.

"_No_," said a soft gentle voice in her mind, "_thank _you_ for protecting him_."

Bella gasped quietly, _who had said that_?

"You just had your first conversation with the TARDIS," said the Doctor softly, who had walked up behind her and smiled down at her fondly, his hands in his pockets.

Bella smiled at him excitedly. "So, when we think you're talking to yourself, you're actually having a conversation with her?"

"Yep," he grinned confidently.

"_Most of the time_," said the same gentle voice as before.

"Oi!" the Doctor said, folding his arms and frowning at the Time Rotor as Bella laughed and put one of her arms around the Doctor's skinny middle.

A thousand, million light years away, a red haired woman sat upright in her bed, drenched in cold sweat and breathing heavily. She turned on her bedside lamp and brushed her fringe out of her eyes, looking wildly around her room.

She had had an impossible dream about a man who she had loved, loved and forgotten. Even now as she sat, trying to get her breathing back to normal, the dream slipped away, she couldn't even remember why she had woken.

There was a quick knock at her bedroom door before it opened and a concerned face appeared.

"Donna, are you alright, love? I heard you yelling about someone called Bella."

"Yeah, Gramps," Donna said quietly lying back down and reaching across to turn the light off, unaware of the silent tears falling from her eyes. "I must've had a bad dream, that's all. Night…"

Wilfred watched his granddaughter close her eyes again and he felt a few tears escape his eyes too. He knew she'd been dreaming about the Doctor, heard her calling out his name like her life depended on it. It broke his heart to see her like this, and the thought of the Doctor alone without her was almost too painful to bare. Maybe, just maybe, he thought, the Doctor had found someone to keep him out of trouble, to keep him safe, to protect him like Donna had. He deserved that much, Wilfred knew.

Wiping his eyes, he closed Donna's bedroom door, leaving her to dream dreams about the most wonderful man in the universe that she could never, ever remember, in peace.

* * *

**Next Time: The Doctor takes Bella and Jack to the planet named Keyna, a planet which seems very similar to planet Earth. What starts off as innocent sight seeing quickly turns into a nightmare that none of them will ever forget. Will the Doctor be able to end the terrifying danger that they have been in ever since he saved Bella's life from the Slitheen and more importantly, will each of them make it out of the mysterious warehouse alive?**

* * *

_Author's note: So, what did everyone think? I hope I explained everything clearly in the end, and I couldn't not add in the very last scene with Donna and Wilfred. I wonder if it has raised any further questions or possibly contradict a certain Time Lord's view of things? Hehe, sometimes I think I am a little bit evil *grinns somewhat madly*. Anyways, next episode is the series finale. This is where it all ends! Dun dun dunnn! So, I am over dramatic too, oh well. If you have any questions about this chapter, don't hesitate to ask. I hope you've enjoyed it!_


	59. Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH1

**_Author's note: So here we are, the beginning of the final episode in the series. It is just a short intro to start with, the following chapters are much longer than this one is. I hope you have been reading the rest of the series closely because I have been putting little clues in every episode; some being pretty obvious, some not so much. I might just give the warning that it might get a little bit emotional in later episodes (of course I would say that, I wrote it!) so be prepared! _**

**_Hehe, I hope you are all ready for this, cause I'm not!_**

**_Are we all sitting comfortably? Good, let us begin!_**

* * *

**Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH1**

The Doctor held onto Bella's hand as they walked down a crowded alien street, examining strange objects that were for sale in the small stalls all throughout the market place. Captain Jack quickly caught up with them, the Doctor and Bella both bursting into laughter when they saw because of the strange looking mask he was wearing. To Bella it looked like some obscure form of Sontaran.

As Jack continued looking at the various stalls, the Doctor pulled Bella over to what looked like a small, high tech telescope. He grinned excitedly at her making her smile before she glanced into it. There was a planet in the middle of the viewfinder with lots of water and a very familiar land mass. In green writing at the bottom of the view finder it said: _Planet Earth, Species Humanoid_.

She looked back up to the Doctor who grabbed her hand once again and led her over to another stall. He brought them both what Bella thought to be vanilla ice cream in a brown waffle cone. Hesitantly she ate some to discover that it tasted exactly like grape Hubba-Bubba bubble gum. Smiling happily, they continued walking back towards Jack, Bella's right arm linked around the Doctor's left.

"The planet Keyna is known as the second Earth." He told her as they ate their ice creams, his eyes alight with excitement. "Not to be confused with _New_ Earth. That hasn't even come about yet. But, the people here are very similar to the humans on Earth, maybe because you are so close to one another, maybe because the atmospheres are almost identical. Although, I must admit that the people here are a bit slow compared to your average human…"

Bella laughed at him.

"Don't get me wrong, there are some brilliant minds here that have advanced the planet in things like technology and sciences and all that. Even though this planet is running at pretty much the same pace as Earth, you lot don't start thinking of things like they do for at least a hundred years."

"Does that include space travel?" Bella asked looking to a building in the distance that looked like some kind of warehouse attached to an old castle as a medium sized space ship took off from behind it.

"Yes it does actually." The Doctor grinned. "They've only just mastered that in the last twenty years. It's not widely used on the planet yet, it's only really used by Government and traders that import goods from nearby planets."

"Did you have anything to do with it?" Bella smiled knowingly.

"Just because Donna and I came here once, doesn't mean that we had anything do with the fact that they invented economic space travel a few years early." The Doctor told her seriously as she looked up to him smiling sceptically. "Oh, alright, we may have given them _some_ inspiration."

Bella laughed at him fondly as he looked down to her when they came to a stop behind Jack, who instantly began showing them various instruments and new mobile phones. Bella smiled and walked over to some metal seats that were beside a deep red tent. She sat she watched the Doctor and Jack as they laughed at each other whilst trying on various hats. She laughed to herself as they started debating which hat suited them the most before a short grey haired old lady stepped out of the tent beside her.

"Oh, you have such a sweet laugh!" the old woman said smiling, making Bella look up to her.

"Thank you," Bella said, smiling modestly.

"And such a beautiful smile too." The old lady said as she moved closer to Bella. "I'll tell you what, dear, how about I read your fortune?"

"Oh," Bella said, feeling a bit stupid for not seeing that the old lady was trying to sell her something. "Uh, no thank you. I like not knowing what tomorrow will bring."

"You do not believe in fortune telling, I understand." The old lady said, her face falling with disappointment.

"No, it's not that," Bella said quickly, feeling bad for hurting the old lady's feelings. "Actually, I believe in telling the future quite a lot." She told her truthfully, thinking about Quando from the Amazon and how he had predicted that the Doctor and her would save his life. "I guess what I am trying to say is that I have no money."

"Oh, don't you worry about that!" the little old lady smiled happily. "I tell fortunes for free for pretty young ladies such as yourself."

Bella allowed herself to be pulled up by the grinning old lady. She shot a look over her shoulder to the Doctor and Jack (who were still in an argument about the hats) before the lady grabbed her hand and began leading her into the deep red tent.

It was at this very moment that the Doctor turned around to see that Bella was no longer sitting on the metal seats laughing at them. He looked around quickly, his heartbeats increasing. He finally saw the back of her being led into a deep red tent by an old grey haired lady.


	60. Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH2

**_Author's note: Chapter two, we're starting to get more hints as to what it coming. This chapter is longer that the first, so I hope you enjoy it!_**

* * *

**Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH2**

"Please sit," the old lady told Bella as she pushed her onto what looked like a soft, red foot rest. As she bustled around, Bella took in her new surroundings. Everything seemed to be some kind of red except for a few items that were a deep purple. There was incense burning in every corner and to Bella it was all very overpowering.

A small boy suddenly walked into the tent and smiled knowingly at Bella, which made her feel oddly nervous.

"My grandson," the old lady said as she sat down opposite Bella behind a wooden table. She placed her wrinkled hands on the table and looked to Bella expectantly. "Your hands please." she said shortly.

Bella slowly lifted her hands and placed them into the old lady's.

"Now close your eyes," she instructed, "and just relax."

Bella reluctantly closed her eyes, unsure as to why the boy was watching her with excited, gleaming eyes. As soon as her eyes were closed, memories instantly swirled before her closed eyes and projected themselves onto the underside of her eyelids as though she was watching some kind of film.

_She saw her house and herself standing at the front gate under the bright blue, cloudless sky, taking in the sheer beauty of her place in the country side before a tall man appeared making Bella jump._

"_Hello,"_

_It was the Doctor and he was grinning at her with her favourite__ grin as she stared at him, just taking in his splendid appearance._

"I am sensing the presence of a very important man in your life," the old lady said slowly, her voice somehow filtering its way through Bella's memories. She felt faint as she tried to work out what was going on. "A man who you hold very dear, a man with whom you'd be lost without, the only man you have ever loved…"

_The memory of the Doctor and herself looking at each other slowly dissolved away before another took its place. It was the two of them sitting on a single bed in their pyjamas and dressing gowns. The Doctor (who was technically John Smith at this point) lifted his hand and stroked her face before kissing her softly on her mouth. This memory dissolved just like the first one before another formed. It was of her sitting on the ground looking devastated, tears falling from her blue eyes as the Doctor approached her from behind, a burning space ship behind him. She watched as she stood up, slapped him across his face before wrapping her arms around him and breaking down._

"Stop," Bella gasped as she realised that real tears were escaping her eyes.

The old woman cackled to herself before there was a sudden shout followed quickly by a loud gun shot.

Bella's eyes flew open and she wrenched her hands away from the old lady's and stood up, spinning around, her eyes falling upon the Doctor, who looked furious, and Jack, who was pointing his gun at the little old lady.

"What the blazes, Jack?" exclaimed Bella before stopping short as her eyes fell onto a black beetle that was laying upside down on the ground dead. It would have had to have been as long as her entire arm. "What is that?"

The Doctor strode over to her and grabbed her arms before examining her shocked, tear-stained face. He held up his hands and placed them on either side of her face. "Trust me," he whispered, closing his eyes.

Bella gasped as she realised he was reading her thoughts and as an automatic defence mechanism she imagined a very large door.

"Bella –"the Doctor reprimanded her.

"S-sorry," Bella stammered. "You caught me off guard." She let him into her mind, but she didn't relax. The Doctor's urgency alarmed her greatly and the fact that Jack was still pointing his gun at the old lady didn't really help either.

She watched the Doctor intently as he searched through her mind, all sorts of memories being looked at. The Doctor's brow was creased in concentration and she could see his mind moving at a hundred miles an hour.

His eyes suddenly flew open and he stared at her for a moment before letting go of her face and turning to the old lady.

"Who are you and who put you up to this?" he ordered furiously and Bella glanced up to him. He was the angriest she had ever seen him, a whole lot angrier than he'd been with the Eternals. He was practically shaking with rage.

"You needn't worry about her and anyone trying to take over her mind Doctor," the old lady told him quietly, an odd grin on her face.

"Why is that?" he asked, cold fury building up but curiosity getting the better of him.

"She is very strong mentally," the old lady explained. "Which makes it near impossible to take hold – not that you would want to, all she ever thinks about is you." She sighed. "My master will not be pleased with me after this development."

"Why does everyone suddenly have a master?" the Doctor exclaimed furiously.

The old lady smiled. "He told me to look out for a pretty young lady travelling with two attractive – and apparently young – men."

"What did you manage to do?" the Doctor said dangerously.

"Nothing," she answered sourly. "For one, her mind was much too strong to get a hold and two; itchy-fingered Rambo here killed the Time Beetle."

Jack smiled with an angry glint in his eye. "And I'd do it again tomorrow."

"So what was your reasoning for needing to rewrite history?" the Doctor asked her angrily.

"You'll have to ask my master that." She said smiling ever-so-slightly.

"Where can we find him?" Jack asked seriously, Bella looking to him felling confused. _Why would they _want_ to_ _find __him?_

"Up at the Castle Warehouse," she told them with an evil glint in her eyes. "I don't know what his real name is, but he seems to be the bloke in charge."

"You work for him but you don't know his name?" Bella asked sceptically.

The lady looked to her. "He only hired me because of my connection to the Trickster."

"I would take him off your contact list if I were you." The Doctor said before the old lady glared at him.

"Who are you to judge him, Time Lord?" she asked him darkly.

"What did you say?" he asked and Bella could hear genuine shock in his voice and that made her extremely nervous.

"You who hides your real name, you who destroyed your own kind!" she continued the Doctor and her staring at each other.

"Doctor," Bella whispered, moving forward slightly as she looked up to the Doctor's face. "How did she do that? How could she possibly know about –"

"And you daughter of John," the old lady said, looking now to Bella, who had stopped mid-sentence to stare horrified at her, "You who has travelled so far and seen so much, but you still have so far left to go and to sacrifice. Tell her, my young one." She added to her grandson who moved forward staring at Bella.

"He is close now, so close." The young boy said, Jack now aiming his gun at him instead, which went unnoticed by the Doctor. "You will barely escape him. There is so much pain and anger, he who is family, he who has defied you all these long years."

"What are you talking about?" Bella asked quietly, thinking of what the young lady had said to her in Scotland.

"In the end you will be the only one who can stop him –"

"Stop it," the Doctor ordered quietly.

The boy turned now to him. "And you who calls himself _Doctor_ will lose her eventually after she sacrifices _everything_ for the man that she loves –"

"I order you to stop!" the Doctor said furiously as the old lady grinned at him.

"Are you afraid, Doctor, of what we say because you think there is no science or truth in it?" she asked him, still grinning as he grabbed Bella's hand and practically dragged her from the tent and into the busy market place, Jack giving one last threatening look before following them out.

"Someone has been trying very hard to split us up for quite some time now, Bella." The Doctor said.

Bella, who was still being pulled along by him, felt her stomach fall uncomfortably. "Really?" she asked sarcastically. "I don't think I've really noticed."

"I can't believe you went off with her!" he added angrily, ignoring Bella's last comment. "That old woman was creepy and I didn't really think I needed to teach you stranger danger. Have they stopped teaching that in schools nowadays?"

"_Stranger danger_?" repeated Bella before pulling the Doctor to a sudden, unplanned stop. "Doctor, what are you talking about, we meet strangers all the time!"

"She's got a point," Jack said seriously, frowning as he came to a stop behind Bella.

She looked up to the Doctor, her hand still in his. "Now are you going to tell me what all that was about?"

He looked down to her, feeling stressed and he could tell he was making her stress too. "Bella, one of these Time Beetles was used on Donna." He said quietly. "The Trickster seems quite intent on creating sheer chaos in this universe."

"But," Bella said, her brow creased in concentration. "He did that to Donna to separate you from her in a parallel universe to basically end the world and that universe. Because you had never met her, she couldn't save you and you died." She shuddered ever-so-slightly, but neither the Doctor nor Jack missed it. "Which meant you couldn't save the universe from the Daleks when they stole all those planets or any of the other aliens who tried to take over the world."

"And it would have been exactly the same with you, only you'd end up worse off." He told her.

"Worse off?" she repeated, wondering how you could be worse off than dead.

"Think of how we first met, Bella." He said very quietly, looking down to her intently. She looked up to him and he could see fear in her eyes.

"You saved me from the Slitheen who were going to send me to someone." She said quietly. She had almost forgotten about all that, all those years ago now, for her at least. Someone had wanted her for something...

"Exactly," the Doctor nodded. "And frankly that would have been catastrophic, think of everyone you've saved since travelling with me."

There was a sudden loud beeping noise and the Doctor, Bella and Jack all looked around. Everyone in the market place had come to a complete halt and stood absolutely still staring into nothing. It was then that they noticed that every single person was wearing a pair of silver ear-pods in their ears that had small flashing blue lights on them.

"No," the Doctor gasped, letting go of Bella's hand, fear edging its way into his voice. He felt Bella's eyes look up to him, her own wide with concern for him, but he just stared at the short, dumpy, middle-aged woman closest to him. He moved to her and looked over her face and over the ear-pods. "No, no, no!" he exclaimed. "This can't be it, can't!"

"Doctor, what is it?" Bella asked, moving to him and grabbing onto the Doctor's arms. "What's wrong?"

He looked down to her. "I need your mobile," he said quickly, holding out his hand expectantly and without taking her eyes off his, Bella got her black slide phone out of one of her jeans pockets before handing it to him. He quickly retrieved his sonic screwdriver from his overcoat and quickly began sonicing through her phone.

Bella exchanged a worried glance with Jack before the Doctor finally looked back up to her.

"So are you going to tell us what's wrong?" Jack asked the Doctor.

"This technology is what's wrong," the Doctor said slowly, pocketing both his screwdriver and Bella's mobile phone into his overcoat.

"It just looks like Bluetooth connections to their cell phones," Jack pointed out logically.

"Ah, but that's how it all started, Jack." The Doctor explained with anger in his voice. "Back in that parallel universe, in the parallel London, where everyone became obsessed with technology and upgrades and there was one man with a brilliant mind who didn't want to die."

"Sounds like my dad," Bella said trying to lighten the mood a bit. "Look where he ended up, dead as a doornail." She added painfully, the Doctor ignoring her.

"So he kept creating what his world wanted, more and more upgrades until he came up with an idea that was the ultimate of upgrades that would save his life and rid everyone of everything that makes you all _so_ human. "He told them. "I fought them, just like I always do, but somehow they managed to get across from their universe across into ours by using the void with the help of Torchwood One."

"The Cybermen!" gasped Jack as the Doctor nodded, frowning. "So you think that someone here is going to try and turn these people into Cybers?"

"Let's go and find out," the Doctor said turning around and moving off with Jack beside him on his left.

"Uh," Bella said, running forward in front of the Doctor and placing her hands on his chest to stop him as everyone surrounding the three of them laughed suddenly before continuing to walk. "Do you really think it's a good idea to go looking for someone who possibly might want to change the future – _our_ future?" she asked him looking very worried.

"Someone has to," the Doctor told her lightly before adding "You could always wait in the TARDIS."

Bella frowned at him as Jack laughed. "As if she'd agree to that!" he grinned.

Bella turned and fell into step with the Doctor who had began walking again as he grinned down at her.

"You wouldn't have let me go back to the TARDIS alone anyway, would you?" she asked him stiffly, her ego feeling slightly damaged.

"Nope," he said grinning at her in her favourite way as he took her hand in his. She looked down to their hands before looking up to his grinning face smiling slightly as she saw excitement building in his eyes.


	61. Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH3

**Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH3**

The three of them walked side-by-side, Jack on the Doctor's left, Bella on his right as they made their way towards the castle. They turned down an alley way before Jack roughly pulled the Doctor and Bella behind a large skip bin. Slowly, the three of them peered hesitantly around the corner.

Down the opposite end of the alley was the back of a long, silver semi trailer with two Cybermen standing either side of the ramp. A man in a plain black business suit and tie stood beside one of the Cybermen just watching their end of the alley way.

The Doctor searched quickly through his overcoat until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out his pair of white cardboard 3D glasses and put them on. He shook his head at Bella, who had opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing, before looking over to the Cybermen. He frowned when he saw the green background radiation floating all about them. They had come through the void from Rose's parallel world into this one. Frowning angrily he took the glasses off and put them back in his jacket, watching the Cybermen with distaste.

Bella suddenly gasped and grabbed the Doctor's arm, making him turn to see a line of people all in a single line turning around the corner and heading down the alley way.

The three of them quickly hid in the gap between the wall of the alley way and the back of the skip bin and watched as the blank faced people walked past them and up the ramp into the back of the semi trailer.

"What's wrong with them?" Bella whispered. "Why are they walking freely into a semi trailer with those metal men?"

"They aren't walking in freely, Bella." The Doctor said very quietly. "It's the ear-pods; they're controlling these people's minds. That's the first stage of converting them all into Cybermen."

Bella and Jack looked to him horrified. They waited until all the people had walked into the back of the truck the two Cybermen following them in, one of the pressing a button and the ramp lifted up and enclosed them in. The man in the business suit walked around to the front of the truck and opened the passenger side door of the cabin.

"Where to now?" asked a voice from inside the cabin.

"Back to the warehouse," the man in the suit answered. "The boss wants everyone back ready for the creation of the Cyber leader."

"Then what's the mad man going to do, launch an attack?" the voice from in the cab said.

"That's exactly what he's going to do." The man said before climbing up into the cab. "I would sure hate to be on planet Earth right now."

Bella gasped as the man closed his door and the truck started up noisily. The Doctor watched it leave as Bella stood up looking horrified.

"What are we going to do?" she said quickly.

"We are going to go and stop all this." The Doctor said strongly, he too standing up. "I know the emotional inhibitor number and that will stop most the Cybermen in their tracks."

They all crawled up an embankment to a wire fence where they looked down over the back of an old grand castle with a massive metal factory attached. There were trucks unloading masses of people, and hundreds of Cybermen directing them into the large metal doors that led into the warehouse.

As Bella looked down at the fifty metre drop below them, the Doctor took out his 3D glasses again. She looked up to him and watched him for a while before her curiosity became too much for her to bear.

"What's with the glasses?"

The Doctor looked to her. "Do you know the last time I used these I had to ask Rose to ask me about why I was wearing them." He said, sounding genuinely confused. "And then as soon as I pull them out when you're with me it's the first thing you do!"

Bella looked at him. "Sorry?" she said not feeling sure if he was angry with her or not. "But, seriously, what are they for?"

He slid back down the embankment, Jack and Bella doing the same as he took off the 3D glasses and threw them to Bella. "Put them on and look to Jack." He instructed her.

She did as she was told and looked to Jack. He stood looking back at her looking as confused as she felt.

"Now look to me," the Doctor said and she looked back to him.

"Whoa!" she exclaimed as she saw the floating green background radiation surrounding him. "What is all that?" she asked.

"Background radiation," he told her as he grinned and moved from side to side, the radiation following him as he swayed. "You get it from travelling to another universe. You and Jack don't have it because of that reason. It's void stuff."

She laughed and reached out to touch him and looked to her own hand, which had nothing surrounding it. She took off the glasses and gave them to Jack so he could see.

"So why do you have them out?" she asked, turning back to the Doctor as Jack grinned, he too seeing the radiation.

"Because the Cybermen that looked like the ones here originally came from another universe." he told her. "The two in the alley way are in the wrong universe, and so are some of the ones below us in the factory, but not all of them."

"And this makes everything worse, doesn't it?" she asked quietly, "Because it should be impossible to travel from one universe to another."

"Exactly," he nodded. "And if they are that means the walls of reality are collapsing again. It's that or they somehow managed to escape the void."

"So how are we going to get in?" Jack said as he took off the glasses, giving them back to the Doctor. "There is a fifty metre drop surrounding the whole place."

"Like any other person," the Doctor said seriously, "through the front door."


	62. Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH4

**Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH4**

Had this of been Bella's first adventure with the Doctor, she would have thought him to be mad with an idea like walking through the front door, but seeing as this was _not_ her first adventure with him, she felt confident that it would work. They just needed to work out what their plan was once they had gotten in.

They walked over the bridge that led into the entrance hall of the castle where two security guards wearing ear-pods stopped them. The Doctor showed them his psychic paper and said "John Smith with two trainees from Health and Safety."

They grunted in response before stepping to the side to let them pass. As they walked away from them past ladies in skirt suits that did not wear ear-pods, Bella looked back at the security guards and saw their blank expressions. She frowned before feeling a warm hand slide into hers.

"We'll work out a way to save them, I promise." The Doctor whispered to her as they walked through the crowded entrance hall. They walked up a set of stairs before following a corridor until they came across a door with a sign labelled "AUTHORISED PERSONEL ONLY, NO ADDMITTANCE."

They entered through the door which led into a dark service corridor that the maintenance people would have used. Bella followed the Doctor and Jack silently as they were whispering hoarsely to each other about plans and ideas, the Doctor occasionally glaring and reprimanding Jack for some particularly brutal idea. Bella looked onto the walls and saw banners that said Cybus Industries in big letters with the logo of the letter 'c' encased in a circle.

"Bella,"

Bella tensed and turned around slowly, finding a deathly pale woman with golden blonde hair and bright blue eyes that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. She looked very familiar to Bella and she suddenly realised where she had seen her before, even though it was completely impossible.

"You," Bella gasped. "You were in Scotland in 1810!"

She stared unblinkingly at Bella, her expression intense. "You must leave here immediately, the Doctor cannot save you!"

"Save me?" Bella repeated, making the Doctor stop walking suddenly and turned to her wondering who she was talking too. He squinted in the dark corridor as he struggled to see. "Save me from what?" Bella asked. "What do you mean?"

The young woman stepped closer to her and she noticed something that she had missed the last time she had seen her. Her eyes looked so much older than the rest of her body. They reminded Bella of the Doctor's eyes, so deep and old and so full of pain.

"I am trying to save your life, Bella."

"Who are you?" Bella said angrily as the Doctor rushed forward recognising the woman's face.

"You were in Scotland!" the Doctor accused suddenly, moving forward towards them.

The woman looked back to Bella quickly. "I must warn you Bella," she said hurriedly. "He is close now, so close.

Bella took a step back. They were the exact same words as the boy had said not half an hour ago.

"You must run, just get back to the TARDIS!" she continued as the Doctor got closer. "As much as he loves you, he cannot save you this time, please just go!"

"How did you get here?" the Doctor asked before she vanished in the blink of an eye. Bella gasped and the Doctor came to a surprised stop, staring at the point at which the woman had been seconds ago.

"Who was that?" Jack asked moving to them as Bella turned to face the Doctor, her face quite pale and her eyes wide.

The Doctor looked into her eyes and knew something was very wrong. "Bella?" he said in hardly a whisper. "What did she say?"

"She knew who I was," she said feeling terrified. _What did all this mean?_ "She knew about the TARDIS as well." She added, thinking that was the most important thing to tell him right at this point in time.

"I thought it was you for a moment there," Jack said to Bella. "It looked like you a little bit from a distance.

Bella looked at him opening her mouth to say something before her eyes looked past his head to the corridor behind him. She suddenly ran forward at a surprising speed pushing both the Doctor and Jack behind a large, out-of-place pillar. They both opened their mouths to complain but as she pinned them to the stone pillar she placed her hands over their mouths.

The Doctor stopped struggling as he heard the all too familiar sound of heavy metal feet marching towards them. He looked down to Bella and nodded, making her drop her hands from their mouths. He put his hands on her waist and pulled her closer to him so that she was in between himself and Jack, keeping one arm around her waist as they slid down the pillar in a lame attempt to hide themselves.

They all held their breaths as the Cybermen in single file walked past their hiding spot and Bella held tightly onto the Doctor who could feel her shaking slightly.

Eventually the sound of the marching stopped and the Doctor leant around the pillar to make sure the coast was clear. He nodded and Bella and Jack gave a sigh of relief.

"Well, they haven't changed at all." Jack said quietly as he and Bella stood up.

"They're pushing seven feet tall!" she said, astounded.

"They still have the Cybus industry logos branded onto them." The Doctor said quietly. "When they attacked Canary Wharf, Jack, they had managed to disperse themselves all across Earth, didn't they?"

"Only heavily populated areas," Jack told him quickly. "Main cities, large towns, places where they expected people to fight back."

"There were a couple in Tunley," Bella told them. "I think they were there to stop us from using our cars and stuff. Up in Bath was bad and so was in Bristol but Wales apparently got hit pretty hard."

"Tell me about it," Jack said darkly.

"You should have been in London," the Doctor said quietly. "There were thousands of them. Torchwood One had been allowing them in and weakening the walls of reality for months. Then the Daleks came through and everything got completely out of hand."

"But how have they gotten here and created all this in three years?" Jack asked.

"I don't know, but we are going to have to make sure we stop whoever is in charge. It ends here today." He said strongly as he stood up. "All we need to do is get to the main control room and enter the emotional inhibitor code. That will send out a signal to all the Cybermen and all those wearing the Ear Pods, no matter where they are."

"What happens to the Cybermen when you do that?" Bella asked.

"They see what they've become." The Doctor said painfully and Bella bit her lip and nodded, understanding what he meant. He began walking again in the direction they were headed before the Cybermen had come, Bella rushing after him.

"What are they exactly?" she asked, Jack walking beside her.

"They're human," the Doctor said a hint of bitterness in his voice. "Well, the ones that have come from the parallel universe that is; the human brain inside a metal suit, the ultimate upgrade. They are made from plastic and steel with an inbuilt energy blaster and an electronically generated voice –"

"DOCTOR!" screamed Bella suddenly.

The Doctor and Jack both spun round to find a Cybermen holding onto Bella's arms very tightly. Fear quickly made its way through every inch of the Doctor's body as he watched Bella struggle. There was no way she would escape the Cyberman's tight grasp unless it let her go itself.

"You are unauthorised personnel." The Cyberman stated in its mechanical voice. "You have been expected, Doctor." It added before pushing Bella forwards into the Doctor and three more Cybermen marched up behind the Doctor and Jack. "You will follow me or you will be deleted."

The Doctor quickly looked over Bella to make sure that she was okay before the Cybermen behind them pushed them forwards. He took hold of Bella's hand tightly as they followed the first Cyberman back down the way that they had just come.

"Who invented the Cybermen in the parallel universe?" Jack whispered to the Doctor from beside Bella. "Is it possible that they jumped from that universe to ours before you closed the void?"

"No," the Doctor answered as they were led into a new circular room which looked like some kind of control panel, whether it was for controlling the Cybermen or the factory itself, the Doctor wasn't sure yet. "John Lumic died in the parallel world, Jack."

"Who?" gasped Bella suddenly before someone gave a deep, cruel laugh.

The Doctor and Jack both pulled Bella behind them as a tall man (slightly taller than the Doctor himself) with greying hair and a dark charcoal coloured suit turned around to face them, his brown eyes glinting evilly.

"No," the Doctor gasped as he realised it was John Lumic.

To Be Continued…

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**_Author's note: I must apologise for taking a bit longer to upload this chapter I have just been flat out over the last two days, and unfortunately I won't be able to upload the next chapter until Sunday night at the earliest because I will be at a gymkhana all weekend. So I do apologise for that, and for the slight cliff hanger that I will be leaving you all on! Hehe, I am a little bit evil sometimes!_**

**_I hope you enjoy, and please leave your thoughts!_**


	63. Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH5

**_Author's note: Sorry it has taken me so long to post this next chapter, I haven't been home since Friday morning! Okay, so there is quite a lot of explinations in this chapter and it might get a emotional. Well, I find it emotional! I hope you enjoy it though :P_**

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Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH5

"No," the Doctor gasped as he realised it was John Lumic.

He smiled watching the Doctor with his clever, yet cold eyes. "I am not who you think I am, as we have never actually met before. You know my alternate self from the parallel universe, the one you helped to destroy."

Bella finally managed to peek around the Doctor and felt as though she had just been hit by a train. "No," she gasped, the Doctor looking around to her due to the sound of her voice.

Her face was pale and she was staring at John Lumic like she was seeing a ghost. "You can't…" she whispered.

"Bella, do you know this man?" the Doctor asked quickly, feeling very confused.

Lumic chuckled. "How long have you been traveling with dearest Bella now, Doctor?"

The Doctor looked back up to him discovering that he was becoming more and more confused and even a little scared as each moment passed. _How could Lumic possibly know Bella?_

Lumic's smile widened, obviously amused. "You really haven't figured it out yet, have you?" he asked as Bella continued to stare disbelieving at him. "You haven't linked the two of us together, ha!"

The Doctor looked down to Bella beside him and recoiled slightly. The expression on her face was like nothing else he'd ever seen before. "Bella?" he managed to say.

"You don't even know her surname do you?" Lumic teased. "You've traveled with her throughout time and space for how long and you don't even know her last name!" he laughed again before looking back to Bella. "I suppose that's a good thing, Bella dear, because if he had of known when you first met he mightn't have asked you to travel with him. Lumic is a very unusual surname, no matter what dimension you're in."

The Doctor couldn't comprehend what Lumic was trying to tell him.

"Doctor," Lumic said smiling. "I would like to formally introduce my lovely daughter, Bella Lumic."

The Doctor looked down to Bella again, still shocked by what Lumic had just said. She couldn't be related to Lumic, she was too kind, too caring, too pure, too… good.

"It can't be," Bella said, her voice, like the rest of her body, shaking violently. "You died thirteen years ago in a car crash!"

Lumic looked to his beautiful daughter and a shadow passed across his face. "Does it look as though I am dead? That glorious day was the day that I was reborn, freed from my old life and the memories that haunted me there." He explained, looking directly at her.

The Doctor exchanged a quick glance with Jack, both of them wondering how someone like Bella could have come from someone like John Lumic.

"That car accident was the first stage in my plan that took me five years to create." Lumic continued. "I needed to save myself from the despair of life's harsh truths. Once your mother died, Bella, there was no reason for me to live."

Bella recoiled from her father's harsh words as though he had physically slapped her. "You still had me?" she managed to say.

"You?" repeated Lumic. "You were the reason Isabella died in the first place!" he told her harshly as Bella let out an uncharacteristic sob. "I promised myself that I would rid myself of all emotions and never, ever die. So I made a plan to leave Earth and you behind! I stole alien technology from the Torchwood Institute in 1992 that allowed me to travel through time and space –"

"A Vortex Manipulator!" said Jack as Lumic lifted his arm.

"Yes," Lumic said. "The first time I used it I managed to fall through the Time Vortex, I believe you call it, and landed in the parallel Earth, just in time to find what my alternate self had created and what you thought you had destroyed. It gave me a new found hope and a fantastic new idea; I could use the Cybermen. I could redesign them in this universe and create a proper species, a species without disease, death and emotions –"

"So basically everything that makes you human?" the Doctor said angrily.

"Basically, yes." Lumic admitted.

"But you died," Bella said emotionally, tears building up in her eyes. She didn't care about the Cybermen; about how they had been created, all her mind could focus on was the fact that her father was alive.

"No," Lumic said coldly. "I brought back what was left of the John Lumic's body from the parallel London and froze him in the rooms below the shed at home until I was ready to leave Earth. After I had gotten everything prepared I drove to pick you up from that annoying friend of yours house. You were my only loose end."

Jack stared at the man in disgust.

Bella took a step backwards from the Doctor and Jack.

"You… you crashed on purpose?" Bella asked.

"Yes." He told her straight out with no remorse in his voice. "After we crashed I got out of the car and put what was left of the parallel version of myself in the driver's seat. The car was completely wrecked and down a country lane so I began to ready myself to teleport out of there. I was surprised however to find that you survived the crash. I couldn't do anything to fix that however because someone was walking down the lane towards us. I needed to get out of there!"

Bella looked down to the floor, tears staining her pale face before Jack yelled furiously "You left her to die?"

A few moments past before she suddenly moved forward so that she now stood in front of the Doctor, looking straight at her father, fear and rage and complete devastation in her eyes. "I blamed myself," she told him quietly. "All these long years, I always thought that you wouldn't have died if I had just stayed the night at Sally's house. I always thought that if I'd done that you'd still be alive so I could have something to home for – _someone_ to go home for and tell you all about the most amazing man in the universe who saved my life. But you did it on purpose. You tried to kill me and you so very nearly succeeded! If that man hadn't of been walking down the lane and called an ambulance I would have died when I was five years old!" she yelled, looking distraught now.

The Doctor looked at her. She had never told him that she had been so close to dying in that accident; he'd only ever known that she'd been in the car at the time.

"It's been you all along," she sobbed as the Doctor continued to look at her, not able to move as his mind worked at the same time as her. Everything she went on to say making perfect sense. "You were behind the Slitheen killing Mary and Mark and then trying to strap me into a spaceship and then the Judoon three weeks later. Then you sent a blood thirsty vampire after me…" she said, sobbing again. "And what's the bet _you_ were the one behind the massacre the Nealonians – my race… my mother's race!"

"You forgot the Family of Pain," Lumic said as if Bella was merrily recounting a film's key points. "Oh and my failed attempt at killing your beloved Doctor; who do you think would have given the treasure hunting Pucu those needles containing that poison?"

Bella let out another sob and collapsed to the floor, crying more than the Doctor had ever seen her cry before. He rushed forward and knelt on the ground beside her before pulling her into his arms. She buried her head in his chest as Jack gave a fury-filled yell and made to lunge at Lumic but two of the Cybermen grabbed him and held him in place. He yelled a furious flurry of insults as he struggled to free himself.

"Doctor," Bella sobbed quietly, grabbing hold of his collar and looked up to him, her eyes drowning in tears. "It's all my fault… Doctor, I'm so sorry!"

The Doctor couldn't say anything as a lump rose in his throat. As she sobbed even harder, he held her closer, glaring up to Lumic.

"Why have you done this?" Jack ordered furiously as he continued struggling against the Cybermen.

"How much detail would you like?"

"Just answer the question!" Jack yelled furiously.

"I need her," Lumic stated. "That is why I sent the Slitheen to watch her and send her to me when she was old enough to withstand the journey. But that part of my plan failed, the Doctor here made sure of that."

The Doctor scowled up to him furiously.

"But then I learned that Bella didn't travel with you, Doctor, as I had predicted, so I hired some particularly brutal Judoon to find her and to get as much information on you so that, eventually, I could get my own back for you interfering."

At this, Bella cried even harder and the Doctor pulled her even closer and stroked her head in an attempt to calm her down. He knew that this new information would make her feel as though it had all been her fault, and that thought nearly broke both his hearts.

"But again, the Judoon failed and you once again saved Bella's life and I ended up with nothing. I knew it would be extremely difficult to get my hands on her now that she had begun to travel with you, yet not impossible. The Vortex Manipulator also tracks people, as _Captain_ Jack Harkness would know. I located you and your blue box in the Amazon where I waited for you to return and it was all too easy to shoot a poison dart into your neck."

"That plan definitely didn't work," the Doctor said, still holding Bella as she shook. "Bella saved my life."

Lumic glared at him. "My next idea was to tip off the Family of Pain about what you were and your amazing and unique lifespan. I hoped they would locate you and kill you."

"And again, Bella saved me." The Doctor said, his voice beginning to shake slightly.

"I then had no other choice but to find and use Harvey Williams –"

"And he nearly killed her, didn't he!" the Doctor said his voice full of indignation. "He was going to turn her into a vampire, was that what you wanted?"

"He was my last resort." Lumic said indifferently. "I had him destroyed after his failure, he was far too dangerous to let him live."

"So what about the lady down at the market place then, the one who worked for the Trickster?" he enquired furiously.

"I told her to keep an eye out for you three after the Judoon failed." Lumic explained callously. "It might have made things easier for me if my daughter had never agreed to travel with you. I know you assumed that that Time Beetle would create havoc in a parallel universe, but she assured me it would rewrite history in this one."

"And the Nealonians?" the Doctor asked in a very dangerous voice. "Why did they have to die? What could they have ever done to you?"

"They were a waste of space," Lumic spat his voice full of disgust. "Pompous old fools who thought they were the greatest race in the universe. I was only too glad divulge their greatest secret to the Slitheen, who merely needed hunting practice for their young."

"You revealed your wife's secret to young Slitheen – your own daughter's secret - just so they could practice killing?" the Doctor yelled in fulmination, letting go of Bella and standing up so that he could direct all his rage at Lumic.

"They were instructed to find Bella and bring her back to me –"

"They would have never brought her back, they would have slaughtered her along with the rest of the Nealonians!" he snapped, well past the point of fury now.

"Well," Lumic said. "I guess a thank you is in order. Contain them!" he ordered suddenly. Three more Cybermen moved forward, two of them grabbing the Doctor and the other one grabbed Bella, who didn't even put up a fight. She just cried silently, looking down to the ground.

"What do you want with her?" the Doctor ordered.

Lumic gave a smile. "I need a new Cybercontroller."

The Doctor froze, his two hearts literally stopped beating and he felt as thought the ice cream he had eaten not a half an hour before hand was about to come back up. "No," he gasped, but no one ever heard it as Jack flew into yet another rage, bellowing as loud as he could.

"If you so much as lay a finger on her it will be the last thing you ever do!" he bellowed, trying to throw the Cybermen off balance by throwing his own weight around.

"You're hardly in the position to be making threats, Harkness." Lumic said in a bored voice. "Take her to the prepping station."

"NO!" yelled the Doctor, trying fruitlessly to free himself so he could save Bella.

The Doctor's cry seemed to bring Bella back to her senses. She looked up to him, tears still in her eyes, and fear passed across her face when she saw the urgency in the Doctor's stare. He knew she didn't quite understand what was going on and what a Cybercontroller exactly was but he hoped that when she saw his face she would realise that none of it was good.

She suddenly kicked the Cyberman's leg that was holding her with all her strength. The Cyberman let her go before Bella cried out in agony, falling backwards and holding her right foot, the one that had come into contact with the metal leg. The Doctor winced slightly as he thought she must have broken (or at least fractured) her leg.

The Cyberman moved forward and picked her up, lifting her over its shoulder.

"Put me down!" Bella ordered, tears of pain falling from her eyes now. She hit it over its head with her left arm, but again it did nothing but hurt Bella. The Cybermen turned and began marching towards the door.

"Say goodbye to Bella, Doctor," Lumic said, watching as his daughter was being carried away, "Because she will never be the same again."

Bella, who heard this comment, looked up from the Cyberman's back to the Doctor's face, her eyes locked onto his.

She looked terrified, everyone could see that, he thought to himself as he reminded himself to keep breathing. _He was losing her_.

"I will work it all out," he managed to choke out, a horrified expression on his face.

"I know," Bella nodded quietly, before adding "No pressure or anything."

The Doctor frowned angrily, feeling like he could have slapped her to knock some sense into her. _Now was not the time to be joking around_, he said furiously to himself.

"He won't be saving you, child." Lumic said angrily. "The next time you will see your beloved Time Lord will be once you have become the Cybercontroller and I give you your very first command; to kill him."

"No," Bella gasped, her face losing the little colour it had left. She looked terrified at that last thought. New tears, tears of devastation, formed in her brilliant blue eyes as she looked to Lumic. "I would rather you kill me than make me do that!" she yelled as she cried.

Lumic smiled slightly as he watched his daughter be carried out of the room, still struggling to get free. They could hear her yelling in the corridor, her voice full of terror.

Jack flew into yet another rage and Lumic walked over to him to argue with him, but the Doctor didn't hear them, he just stared into nothing as the Cybermen held tightly onto him.

He'd lost her, she was gone. How could he possibly save her now? They were dealing with a mad man who had practically been planning this moment for eighteen years. Lumic had undoubtedly made changes from the Cybermen from the parallel universe for the new ones that he had created so he wouldn't be able to stop them.

His hearts felt like they were physically breaking into half. He had let her down and broken yet another promise that he'd made to her.

"Bring them with me," Lumic instructed the four Cybermen before heading out the same door that Bella had been carried out a few minutes before hand. The Doctor and Jack were pushed out after him.

Jack looked to the Doctor as they were being pushed along and noticed he was pale and he wore a devastated expression on his face.

"You've given up." Jack stated with a slight quiver in his voice, trying very hard not to lose his temper with him before he'd gotten the chance to explain himself.

The Doctor remained silent, staring ahead of them.

"After everything you've gone through together," Jack said in a hoarse whisper, his temper quickly rising. "She has never – _ever_ – given up on you Doctor! She stayed by your side for three days while you laid unconscious in Torchwood! She looked after you for three months while you were human; slaving away in the 1920's just to make sure that you stayed safe! She waited five years for us to come back -"

"What can I do, Jack?" the Doctor finally snapped, looking to Jack angrily, he too whispering. "Lumic is a genius. He would have changed everything, codes, wires, you name it! I can't do anything!" he added helplessly.

They were led across a suspended walkway that looked over ninety percent of the factory. They could here people's screams as they walked into the Cyber convertors and discovered large machines that were going to cut their brains out. The Doctor clenched his jaw and his fists into tight balls. He had to do something.

They entered a room in which were five Cybermen were standing at a large, long control panel that would have been controlling and sending signals to the machinery, including the Cybermen. If the Doctor could just work out a way to enter the Emotional Inhibitor code he would be able to stop some of the Cybermen at least.

He looked out the large windows and saw Cybermen and people working tirelessly at various work stations.

"How did you manage to get the Cybermen from the parallel universe here?" the Doctor asked Lumic angrily.

"I didn't," Lumic said looking to him. "When they came through the void some of them overshot their mark and ended up here instead of on Earth, so they were safe when you closed the void back up. Others merely used an emergency teleport which locked onto the ones stranded on this planet and brought them here. When I approached them they naturally recognised me and I gave them my word that I would help them rebuild their empire in this universe and promised them a Cybercontroller."

"Why her?" the Doctor asked furiously pre-empting the answer.

"With Bella's brains, she would be the ultimate Cyberman and my control over this world and then the Earth would be undisputed!"

"Look, you failed in a parallel universe," the Doctor told him shortly, thinking that Bella's intelligence would have had something to do with it. "I stopped you and you, or rather your mind fell to your death and burned – you know that, so what makes you think I won't stop you again?"

"I am saving her from all pain, eliminating it so she never has to go through what I did when her mother died, what is so wrong about that?"

"She already has felt what you have, if not more and you're the reason behind it!" the Doctor snapped furiously.

"Like I said," Lumic said dismissively. "I shall remove all emotions."

"And like I said," the Doctor said, raising his voice slightly. "I will stop you!"

Lumic smiled at him. "Except this time I redesigned the new Cybermen to be practically indestructible and unstoppable, unless they heard the impossible from a certain Time Lord."

"And what's the impossible?" Jack asked sceptically.

"Those three little words from the Doctor," Lumic said smugly. "Three words that I know for a fact he can never say." He grinned and told the Cybermen to keep the Doctor and Jack where they were before he walked to the door that led out into the factory.

The Doctor stared at the place where John Lumic had been standing, his hearts barely beating. He was shocked into a frozen silence and even Jack stared at him horror struck. He couldn't believe that it would be so unbelievably easy to save Bella's life but so incredibly difficult at the same time.


	64. Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH6

**Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH6**

Bella stirred uncomfortably on the hard surface that she was currently lying down on... The last thing she remembered was getting dropped on her head by the Cyberman who had carried her away from the Doctor. She opened her eyes and discovered that she was now in a huge factory warehouse. She made to sit up, but she found that her arms were tied up above her head and her legs were bound as well.

Accepting the fact that she wasn't going anywhere until someone untied her (she hope it would be the Doctor and/or Jack) she took in her strange surroundings.

There were Cybermen everywhere, working on machines and computers. A few humans in white lab coats walked past her occasionally, but none of them ever made eye contact with her and she noticed that they weren't wearing ear-pods. She came to the conclusion that becoming a Cybercontroller was not going to be a pleasant experience and that it involved much more than just sitting at a control panel all day ordering everyone around.

A door opened from what Bella thought to be an office of some kind above her on a suspended platform and her father walked down a set of stairs towards her, smiling. Bella scowled at him.

"Hello Bella," he said quietly stopping beside her and looking down to her.

Bella glared at him. "What have you done with the Doctor and Jack?" she ordered.

"Oh they're fine, they are just up there," he said, pointing to the room that he had just come from. She looked up to it and saw them (still being held by two Cybermen each), Jack talking quickly to the Doctor, who just stared emotionally down to her. "I just thought I would come down and show you your new body."

He indicated a tall Cyberman shell that was in a steel cupboard to Bella's right.

"He will stop you, you know." Bella told him quietly as she looked over the Cyberman shell, her stomach churning uncomfortably. She felt as though she was about to be sick at the thought of becoming one of the metal men.

"I don't think so Bella," Lumic told his daughter as she looked back up to him. "Because there is only one way to stop most of these Cybermen and I've already told the Doctor how to do it. I bet you're now wondering why he hasn't saved you yet." He smiled and leant down to whisper in her ear. "I mean, all he has to do is to say that he loves you and most of the Cybermen will stop working for a short period of time. I thought it was a rather foolproof plan."

The Doctor and Jack watched as Lumic whispered something in Bella's ear, her face going deathly pale and tears springing to her eyes. The Doctor thought she looked like someone who had just been told that they had some kind of terminal illness, like someone who had been told they only had a few weeks left to live.

As Lumic walked away smiling from his daughter, they watched her struggle futility against the steel binding her to the slab that she was lying on before yelling, her voice full of pain.

"You've won!" she screamed. "Just let them go! Don't make him watch this, _please_!" she said, letting out a sob, before continuing to scream desperately "Do whatever you want to me, just let them GO! Don't make him watch this!"

Lumic ignored her and walked back up the stairs briskly and into the control room. "I just thought I should tell her why her hero and greatest friend of all time couldn't save her, Doctor." Lumic told the Doctor who was fuming. "It didn't seem to surprise her all that much though." He added in afterthought. "Oh well, let's get started."

The five Cybermen pushed various buttons and a loud alarm sounded, locking down the building. A group of Cybermen moved to Bella, one of the holding a large familiar needle in its metal hand.

"No," the Doctor choked as Bella screamed in terror and began to struggle twice as hard as she had been before. He had to save her, he _had_ to. All he had to do was say how he really felt, _it shouldn't be this hard, _his mind screamed!

Jack had also started to struggle again, because as much as he knew the Doctor wanted to save Bella, he knew that he couldn't by saying what he needed to. It was impossible, and he knew it would be killing the Doctor inside. He had to try his utmost to try and help.

"I love her," the Doctor whispered very quietly making Jack freeze unbelievingly. Did Jack just hear correctly?

Lumic turned around suddenly, thinking that he too had misheard the Doctor. "What did you say?"

"I said that I love her," the Doctor said furiously and a stunned silence followed before the four Cybermen holding onto him and Jack let them go before falling forward onto their faces with a loud crash. The five Cybermen operating the controls fell forwards onto the control panel, creating sparks and making an alarm sound.

"No," Lumic gasped, looking around horrified.

The Doctor ran forwards, Jack behind him grinning broadly and laughing triumphantly to himself as the Doctor wrenched open the door and moved out onto the platform looking down and seeing the Cybermen surrounding Bella all fall to the ground, leaving Lumic alone trying desperately to regain control.

"Haha, you did it!" Jack exclaimed happily as they ran down the stairs, jumping over Cybermen that had fallen. He couldn't believe that the Doctor had actually said it, mind, giving the fact that it was a life threatening situation probably helped a bit.

"We aren't out yet, Jack." The Doctor frowned, jumping over another Cyberman as he ran around a work station, before gasping as he saw that one of the Cyberman had fallen onto Bella. "Bella!" he gasped, running quickly to her.

"Doctor?" she gasped as he ran to her and lifted the torso of the heavy Cyberman off her and let it fall to the ground with a loud crash. "How did you –"

"I told him what he wanted to hear," he told her as he soniced the metal bounding her hands to the bench before lowering her arms down over her head and Jack grabbed the sonic in order to do the same to her legs.

Bella looked to the Doctor as he helped her to sit up, her mouth hanging open slightly, feeling taken aback. "But Jack said you couldn't… I didn't think you would actually – you know –"

"How could I not Bella?" the Doctor asked her softly, giving her a small smile as Jack finally broke her legs free.

She looked at him, biting her lip before wrapping her arms around the Doctor's neck, making Jack chuckle as the Doctor held her.

"About time," Jack laughed, the Doctor and Bella ignoring him as they held each other.

Bella couldn't believe it. The Doctor actually had feelings for her. _Her_! She smiled and went slightly pink as he kissed her softly and subtlety on the top of her head, something that Jack missed.

There was suddenly a loud crashing noise followed by the _whoosh_ of a chemical fire starting somewhere fairly close to them. The Doctor pulled Bella off the table and put her on her feet before taking her hand.

"There is no one controlling all the machines!" Jack yelled as more explosions went off and they saw flames reaching the top of the roof down the end of the massive warehouse.

"We need to get out of here!" the Doctor yelled before a small explosion went off near them.

"We need to break the emotion inhibitor before going anywhere, Doctor. We need to put all of this right again and save everyone who is wearing those stupid ear-pods!" Bella said strongly before each of them froze as they heard Cybermen marching towards them, lead by Lumic himself.

"The fire is going to take care of that Bella," he said, knowing it sounded harsh and horrible but it was a true fact. There were so many chemicals blowing up around them that he was certain that the whole place would be consumed by heat and fire in less than ten minutes.

"Did you honestly think, Doctor, that I would program _all_ of my Cybermen in the same way?" Lumic asked furiously, his face looking distorted with rage as he approached them. "I kept a collection aside just in case you actually managed to say it!"

The group of Cybermen behind him all lifted their left arms as Jack pulled out his gun.

"You are incompatible," one of them said in its mechanical voice. "You must be deleted!"

Bella gave a small cry as the Cyberman at her feet began to stir. "They're waking up!"

"Run!" the Doctor said quickly.

"But the code, Doctor –"Bella tried to say as she looked up to the room that the Doctor and Jack had been inside before the Doctor pulled her away.

"_RUN_!" he yelled, leading Bella and Jack though the minefield of Cybermen that were all beginning to wake up again.

"Where are we going?" Jack yelled out to him from behind Bella.

"Up there!" the Doctor yelled back as he pointed up to a doorway that was halfway up the stone wall with a suspended walkway surrounding it.

"GET THEM!" yelled Lumic frantically, he himself running after them. "THEY CANNOT ESCAPE! DESTROY THEM!"

The three of them were literally running for their lives as blasts from the Cybermen hit things close to them. Occasionally Bella would look back over her shoulder to see her father chasing them as he was surrounded by Cybermen. As they ran all the ones that had fallen had begun sitting up and they all made to grab them.

The fire was quickly engulfing most of the other end of the warehouse and making its way towards them. Bella noted that it had almost reached the control panel room that the Doctor and Jack had been before and she hoped that what the Doctor said would be true. There was another particularly large explosion that sent a heat wave over them as they reached the metal staircase that led to the thick metal door.

The Doctor and Bella ran up the stairs to the door while Jack stood defensively at the bottom of the stairs, holding his gun and shooting at a Cyberman whenever he thought he had a good shot, knowing that he would soon run out of bullets. He pointed his gun at Lumic but groaned to himself as he shot the Cyberman next to him in the eye, making it fall backwards. He couldn't bring himself to be the one that would kill Bella's father; he didn't want to be the cause of more pain for her.

"Come on!" he yelled over his shoulder as the Cybermen were advancing on them.

The Doctor pulled on the heavy door handle before pulling out his sonic screwdriver and peering through the round, triple layered glass window. Bella looked around and saw that the fire was now engulfing the control room and she crossed her fingers. The Doctor soniced around the edges of the door until it clicked. He threw the screwdriver into Bella's hands before using his hardly used muscles to pull the heavy steel door open.

There came the largest explosion yet as the control panel room was destroyed by the flames. The Doctor and Bella looked down to the Cybermen and saw that they all swayed before crying out loud.

"I am so sorry," the Doctor said, and he deeply meant it, over all the noise. "Come on, Jack!" he yelled as he ushered Bella through the door before she stopped to wait for them, looking down to the sonic screwdriver in her hands and taking a deep breath. Jack shot one last look at the Cyberman and John Lumic before he too ran up the stairs and through the door. When the Doctor had come through, the three of the pushed the door shut.

"Aren't you going to lock it?" Jack asked as he followed the Doctor who had already begun to walk away, Bella standing still at the door. She knew what she had to do.

"They won't be getting out Jack; their emotional inhibitors have been severed." The Doctor told him as they walked. _That and he didn't want to lock Bella's father in a burning warehouse_, he thought darkly to himself.

There was a bang behind them and they both spun round, thinking that the Cybermen had broken through but when they looked they found that Bella had turned three bolts on the back of the door.

"Open this door, Bella!" Lumic ordered his face in the round window.

"No," Bella said simply as she took a step back from the door so she could look at her father in the eye. 'Because if you escape you'll start it all again, won't you?"

Lumic laughed at his daughter. "I can find someone else to be the Cybercontroller, it will still work. It could be absolutely anyone, even me."

Bella nodded her face pale and blank. "Exactly," she said quietly before lifting the sonic screwdriver up to the keypad on the wall beside the door that granted access to the warehouse. It sparked, making Lumic jump back from the door.

"Bella," the Doctor gasped, moving forward a few steps towards her as he realised what she had done.

"What did you do?" Lumic said, fear in his voice for the first time as his face reappearing in the window.

"I triple dead locked the entire warehouse," she said flatly making Jack gasp. "You can't get out and no one can get in."

"But there's a fire in here," Lumic gasped looking over his shoulder. "I'll die –"

"I know what Cybermen can do," Bella said over the top of him, her voice beginning to shake ever-so-slightly. "And I know what you can do. If I let you go you would destroy the entire universe and I will not let you do that. I need to do what is right for everyone else and I need to protect the people who can't stand up for themselves, the people who's planets haven't got a hope in hell in defending themselves against evil, disgusting beings like you!"

She turned around and faced the Doctor and Jack, willing herself not to break down. She knew that both of them had had the opportunity to kill her father, but neither of them had taken it because they didn't want to hurt her. In a way she was glad that they hadn't done anything, because in Bella's eyes, her father wasn't their responsibility, he was hers.

Lumic laughed and watched his daughters back. "You are going to let your own father die?"

Bella froze, clamping her jaw tightly shut so she wouldn't cry. She wouldn't let herself. This had to be done; the whole universe's safety depended on this happening.

"The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree, does it Bella?" Lumic jeered.

"She is nothing like you!" Jack snapped angrily as he could see what he was trying to do. "You were going to kill Bella for the creation of evil, what Bella is doing is for the protection of everyone else."

"Your own father," Lumic said quietly, looking at the back of Bella's head and she gave one short, hollow laugh and turned around to him.

"I lost my father a very long time ago,"

The smile slid of Lumic's face as Bella turned around and walked past the Doctor and Jack and headed down the long, dark stone corridor towards the doorway at the opposite end, her footsteps echoing in the dark, deserted corridor. Jack slowly turned and followed as did the Doctor, but only after giving Lumic one last, fury-filled look.

As he walked down the corridor, the Doctor watched Bella's rigid back until she pushed open the double doors at the other end. He quickened his pace knowing from experience how much pain she would be in right now. What she had just done would have almost destroyed her.

He pushed opened the doors and looked down to his left, seeing her collapsed into a crumpled heap on the stone floor, her face against the wall. She was crying heavily, her whole body shaking severely.

He knelt down beside her and placed a hand on her back, moving it up and down, knowing that there was nothing he could say or do to make her feel any better about what she had just done.

"Oh Bella," he said softly feeling the pain she was feeling.

The whole warehouse burned for a long time. The castle had been evacuated when the alarm first sounded, and everyone there had escaped. Because the control panel had blown up, all the people who had been wearing the ear-pods were saved and they all destroyed them as they realised what they had been heading towards.

The fire never spread from the warehouse to the castle. Its thick, metal walls contained it, and it burned for two whole weeks. It destroyed everything inside and no one ever escaped nor tried to get inside, because everyone knew what that strawberry blonde haired girl had done, and they saw the pain in her eyes as she was carried into a blue police box and they all knew that it wasn't just the Time Lord that his enemies should fear, it was also his ever faithful companion, Bella Lumic, the girl who saved the universe at a terrible price.


	65. Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH7

**Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH7**

**FOUR DAYS LATER**

The Doctor leant on the railing beside the TARDIS doors, just watching Bella as she sat on the chair at the control panel staring into nothing, her face completely blank. It worried him to see her like this. If he was truthful to himself he would say that it upset him. He knew that it had almost destroyed her to lock her father inside the Cybermen factory and he knew the feeling very well, but it terrified him to look at her now; it terrified him because Bella reminded him so much of himself.

Beside him the TARDIS door opened quietly and Jack walked in stopped beside him, looking over to Bella.

"How is she?" he asked the Doctor quietly.

"The same as yesterday," he answered him flatly.

Jack looked to him, wondering if he should be considering Bella's behaviour to be normal. "It's been four days, though."

"Jack," the Doctor said as he turned to him heatedly. "She was the reason her father died, she made it happen!"

"Yeah, a father who faked his own death!" said Jack quietly, sounding angry as he took a step towards the Doctor. "A father who abandoned her and has practically been hunting her down almost her whole life!" he continued angrily.

"He was still her father," the Doctor argued quietly. "He was still her family –"

"He was going to turn her into a Cyberman for God's sake!" he snapped. "He sent Judoon and vampires after her and he certainly didn't love her!"

"You don't know what its like," the Doctor said dangerously. "You've never been in this situation –"

"Haven't I?" Jack challenged furiously, his voice rising slightly as was the Doctor's.

"Even if a person you care about is evil to their very core doesn't mean that you want to be the one to kill them!" the Doctor said, his voice level creeping up too.

"I've always wondered why you didn't just kill the Master," Jack said spitefully. "What you and Bella must feel about your murdered loved ones – murdered because you made it happen, I might add – the emotions that you _aliens_ must feel, us _humans_ can only dream of I guess –"

"Stop it,"

The Doctor and Jack froze.

It had been Bella's hollow voice and she had looked up to them. She had probably heard most of their argument, the Doctor thought guiltily. He turned to face her again and he found himself recoiling slightly as if seeing her like this and looking into her eyes caused him tremendous pain.

Her eyes, her beautiful, sparkling blue eyes now looked so haunted and sad. They looked so lost and much older than they should have. They looked like the eyes of an old woman that were trapped inside the body of a young, healthy teenager. So alone and so unbearably miserable. When the Doctor himself looked into a mirror he could see his own eyes reflected back at him and they were the very same as Bella's, hollow and miserable. They were exactly the same and she was just like him now in so many ways.

Beside the Doctor, Jack had just come to the very same conclusion. They were almost the same, with so many similarities between the last Time Lord and the last Nealonian. The very same pain…

The Doctor moved towards her, his whole body feeling like it was numb with pain. "Bella, what can I do for you?"

"Stop fighting," she said flatly.

"Bella," he sighed.

She looked away from him painfully down to her hands, contemplating her answer. "There is one – no forget I ever said anything." She said shaking her head.

"Bella," he presses softly. He couldn't stand seeing her like this anymore.

"No, there's nothing," she said, still looking down at her hands, before adding in an undertone "there'd have to be Laws of Time that disallows things like this."

"I'll do it," the Doctor told her truthfully making Bella look up to him bewildered.

"The Laws of Time were made up for a reason, Doctor; you _especially_ ought to know that." Bella said, the first light hearted remark she had made in days.

The Doctor would have normally grinned at her for a remark like that, but instead he moved closer to her, the look on his face a slightly mad/insane one. "I would break all of them Bella because I can't bear to see you like this anymore. I can't bear to see you so like me." He looked down somewhat shamefully. He felt Bella's soft hands enclose around his, so he looked up to her again. "Where did you want to go?"

She bit her lip and looked away. "I was thinking that maybe it might help me to accept… I mean I got the impression from the Eternals that I was missing out on something, something rather important – but I know it's wrong and we shouldn't –"

"When?" he asked her softly.

She looked back up to him. "The fifteenth of October, 1996." She told him very quietly. "That was the night I truly lost my father." She told them.

The Doctor observed her, thinking back to their time with the Eternals, who had also given him the impression that Bella had forgotten something important about that night. He nodded and let go of her hands before turning wordlessly to the control panel.

The Doctor, Bella and Jack stood unseen in the trees and the bushes in the cover of darkness behind a hip-high stone wall in silence. Bella (who stood in between the two men) felt sick. She couldn't believe that the Doctor had allowed her to come here to actually see what they were about to witness and she also couldn't believe that the Doctor had willingly broken a Law of Time (going back on a specific person's timeline) just for her.

She was just about to say she wanted to go back to the TARDIS when she saw to her left a car with their high beams on heading in their direction. "This is it," she gasped, feeling sicker than before. The Doctor quickly took hold of her right hand and held onto it tightly.

The car came around the corner too fast and collided with the opposite wall. The three of them stared at the crash in horror, each of them knowing that if Bella had of been a normal human being she would have died on impact.

A younger looking Lumic pulled himself out of the driver's side window with hardly a scratch on him. He walked around to the boot of the car and pulled out a slightly older looking him and dragged it to the front.

Bella blinked back tears and put her arms around the Doctor's skinny middle, the Doctor wrapping his arms around her. None of them could believe what they were seeing. It was one thing to hear Lumic explain it to them, but to see it...

Lumic put the parallel him in the driver's seat and staged it so that his head went through the window. Once he'd finished, he stood back, apparently to admire his work.

"Where's the man?" the Doctor asked softly, Bella shrugging in response as she tried to keep it all together.

"Lumic said that the man was the only reason that he left you alive." Jack said looking around.

Bella nodded. "I don't think I was conscious at this point. The first thing I remembered was that the man said my name and then promised me that everything was going to be okay."

The three of them heard a soft voice come from inside the car.

"Papa?" it was Bella.

They looked to Lumic who looked horror struck. He slowly began to walk around the car towards the front passenger's seat.

"Where is this guy?" Jack whispered tensely. "I don't see anyone."

The Doctor suddenly let go of Bella and moved forward, jumping over the stone fence.

"Doctor?" said Bella emotionally holding up an arm to try and stop him, but Jack grabbed her. She didn't think she could get through this without him.

The Doctor walked down the small embankment and onto the road, where he strode towards the car. He heard Bella behind him say "But the man will see him!" She didn't get it, she didn't realise what they were here for. They were meant to come here for this very reason. Everything they had gone through together, the Slitheen, the Judoon, the Pucu, the Family of Pain, the vampire and her father had all been for this; the very first time he had ever saved her life.

"Time to go isn't it?" the Doctor said dangerously as Lumic stopped in his tracks and looked up to the approaching figure. He couldn't make the Doctor out in the darkness, which the Doctor thought was a good thing.

Bella watched the Doctor walk slowly towards the car, her father looking up to the Doctor looking terrified. He lifted his left arm and brought his right hand down onto his wrist and disappeared into thin air.

The Doctor moved forward and walked around the passenger side of the car and peered in the broken window.

There was a five year old Bella. She looked so young and her hair was down and curly and slightly lighter than it was now but not as red. She had a large gash on her forehead and other smaller cuts all over her exposed arms and legs. Her wounds were all healing very slowly, so slowly that they would probably take a few days to heal fully.

The Doctor searched through his long overcoat's pockets until he found Bella's mobile phone. He dialled 999 and held it up to his ear. Once a woman answered he said "There's been a car accident on Stitchings Lane in Nailwell. A man has been killed and there is an injured five-year old girl who needs urgent medical attention."

"Okay sir," the woman said quickly. "There is an ambulance heading down to you from Bath, they should be there in ten to fifteen minutes –"

He hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket before opening the passenger door solemnly.

The younger Bella stirred and opened her eyes slightly. The Doctor watched her intently, making sure that she was okay. "Bella," he said softly as he knelt down beside her. "Everything is going to be okay, I promise."

"Papa," she cried softly as she tried to look over to the driver's side.

"Bella look at me," the Doctor said grabbing her hand quickly. She looked to him and tried to focus on his face but her eyes kept going crossed-eyed. _No wonder she didn't remember me_, the Doctor thought. Her eyes began to close and the Doctor placed the hand that wasn't around her hand of her soft face.

"I love you papa," she whispered making the Doctor's eyes burn as he watched her slip in and out of consciousness. Her grip on his hand tightened when she was conscious out of fear, which made the Doctor smile slightly. _Some things never change_, he thought fondly to himself.

Bella and Jack watched the Doctor sit beside the car holding onto a tiny little hand. She cried silently as Jack held onto her, his eyes burning as well. She could hardly believe that the man that she had remembered had been the Doctor. This had been the first time she had ever met him. The beauty of time travel.

The Doctor waited with Bella until the ambulance arrived, where he was promptly shoved out of the way by three officers. He took one last look at the young Bella before he slipped away into the darkness unnoticed. He jumped the fence and the present day Bella collided with him, crying softly and he held her tightly.

"Thank you," she whispered, tears silently falling down her face.

"C'mon," he said quietly, keeping his arm around her shoulders and she kept her arms wrapped around his middle as the three off them walked back through the trees to the TARDIS.


	66. Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH8

**_Author's note: So this is the end of the series. Bit of an emotional time, I never expected it to go as well as it has, so a big thank you needs to go out to all of you, because everything that you've said to me has meant the world and I will be forever greatful! The biggest of thank you's should probably go out too FranGipani6181 who recommended this site to me, so thank you!_**

**_I would also like to say that I do have a series of crossovers on the way, the first being Torchwood, in which the Doctor and Bella appear alongside the traditional cast. If you enjoyed this series I would suggest that maybe you add me to your author's list so that you don't miss out. But that is only if you are interested, of course. The next one is with the Sarah Jane Adventures, cause I couldn't help myself!_**

**_So anyway, this is sort of just a little fluff piece to finish up the series and to answer some of the questions that were still remaining. I hope you enjoy it, and once again, THANK YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH!_**

* * *

**Ep13 Sins of thy Father CH8**

The Doctor stood all alone in the control room. Jack was outside in the Torchwood hub and Bella was down in her room. He sighed to himself. It had been a stressful time over the past week and he'd be very glad if he never experienced anything like it again. He checked over the controls one last time before turning to head towards the stairs to check on Bella.

He froze as he saw a young woman standing looking at him. It was the one from Scotland. He frowned as he remembered he had also seen her when Bella had been stabbed by the Slitheen on Nealon and when he was human as Smith, when Bella had been attacked. Bella was the common thing in all these occasions.

"Who are you?" he asked quietly.

She looked at him with blue eyes that seemed so familiar to him. "I am nothing but the ghost of a parent trying to protect her child, Doctor."

He looked at her. "You're Bella's mother?" He enquired making her smile.

"I can see why she likes you," she smiled quietly. "And I can see that she is in very safe hands. Thank you for saving her."

"I'll always save her," he whispered softly, deep emotion in his voice.

They looked to each other for a moment before she gave a final smile and disappeared into thin air.

Bella sat in her bedroom in the TARDIS on her double bed on the side that was closest to the wall, just thinking. She had been doing that a lot lately. She now knew how the Doctor felt about having to destroy the Time Lords, but on a lesser level and she wasn't quite sure how he coped.

There was suddenly a noise behind her on the other side of the bed. She didn't need to turn around, she could see who it was (not that she needed to) in the long mirror that was beside her.

He was standing behind her. With his stand up-ish, spiky hair and his gorgeous deep brown eyes. He was there, wearing an expression of deepest concern and looking at her. How could she deserve someone as fantastic as him in her life?

"The only thing that saved me, apart from you scaring dad off, was me being half Nealonian, wasn't it?" she asked hollowly.

The Doctor nodded painfully.

"And if we hadn't of gone back, you would have never been there to make him leave and he would have found some other way of getting rid of me?" she continued but she wished she hadn't when she saw the Doctor's expression.

"Basically," he admitted as he sunk down to her bed.

She looked down. "I'm like him aren't I?"

"No," he said firmly. "Bella, look at me,"

She turned and sat back against the pillows as she looked to him.

"You are nothing like him," he told her sternly. "Never, ever think that!"

She nodded, watching him as he lay down beside her sighing and keeping his right arm outstretched. "Come here," he said grinning as she lay down next to him, resting her head on his right shoulder and her right hand on his chest as he pulled her closer to him, wrapping his right arm around her.

"I think I figured something else out too," he said, looking up to the roof.

"Oh?" she said.

"Yeah, I think I figured out how you saw the subwave message," he continued. "It was partly because of the link you established with the TARDIS to save me and partly because we had already met in your past. That was such a pivotal point in time that the TARDIS instantly sent out the link throughout all of time and space, which let you see part of the subwave message and even drew Rose to you when she was searching for anyone who knew me." He paused for a few seconds then added, "So I was right in saying that the TARDIS really likes you."

She gave a slight smile and they fell into a thoughtful silence, for how long neither of them knew, but eventually, a thought suddenly struck the Doctor.

"Did you see the hat that Jack liked best on Keyna?" he asked her seriously. "It made him look like the backside of a baboon!" he concluded, making Bella laugh for the first time in four days.

"Or how about the mask that made him look like a gay storm trooper?" he continued, loving the sound of her laugh.

Bella giggled before saying "yeah, but the mask you had made you look like an Ood with hair!" she said smiling sweetly before ruffling up his hair fondly.

"I did not," he told her seriously, frowning slightly.

"You did too," She told him giggling, putting her hand up to her chin and wiggling her fingers around, making the Doctor cave in and he roared with laughter.


End file.
